03/02/10The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart
by Mathias Malzieu
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FIRSTLY: don’t touch the hands of your cuckoo-clock heart. SECONDLY: master your anger. THIRDLY: never, ever fall in love. For if you do, the hour hand will poke through your skin, your bones will shatter, and your heart will break once more.
Edinburgh, 1874. Born with a frozen heart, Jack is near death when his mother abandons him to the care of Dr. Madeleine—witch doctor, midwife, protector of orphans—who saves Jack by placing a cuckoo clock in his chest. And it is in her orphanage that Jack grows up among tear-filled flasks, eggs containing memories, and a man with a musical spine.
As Jack gets older, Dr. Madeleine warns him that his heart is too fragile for strong emotions: he must never, ever fall in love. And, of course, this is exactly what he does: on his tenth birthday and with head-over-heels abandon. The object of his ardor is Miss Acacia—a bespectacled young street performer with a soul-stirring voice. But now Jack’s life is doubly at risk—his heart is in danger and so is his safety after he injures the school bully in a fight for the affections of the beautiful singer.
Now begins a journey of escape and pursuit, from Edinburgh to Paris to Miss Acacia’s home in Andalusia. Mathias Malzieu’s The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a fantastical, wildly inventive tale of love and heartbreak—by turns poignant and funny—in which Jack finally learns the great joys, and ultimately the greater costs, of owning a fully formed heart.
I've been waiting for this book for a long time now and it's finally just about here! It has a beautiful new cover that is seriously making me swoon. Check out this lovely video preview of the book, (something I never post because I never enjoy them, but this one is special!) and find out the contest details just below it.
So what do you have to do to enter? For 1 entry, comment on this post. For 1 extra entry, post a link to this contest on your blog or social networking page (sidebar is cool). For 1 extra entry, follow this blog! If you already Follow you automatically get this extra entry plus your awesome. Deadline for entry is March 12th at 11:59 pm. Open to all US and International readers. |
