The 13 Clocks - Tapa dura

An unequivocal children's classic. Exquisitely resurrected by the New York Review Children's Collection, this attractive facsimile is a rare treat. Written in the true tradition of fairy tales, it features a handsome hero, an outrageously barbarous villain, an enigmatic henchman, and a captive princess. James Thurber's audacious and lyrical writing is a complete joy to read aloud. Not to be missed. (Bookseller)

A wonderful folk-fairy tale construction telling of a duke and a conundrum over time with witty twists and turns. (School Librarian)

Thurber's coinages for sound-effects, the eccentric logic of the characters' deductions, and the slipping in and out of rhyme all make the story ask to be read aloud, promising great fun for both adult and child readers. (Carousel)

Profound, witty and terrific to read aloud. (Irish Post)

Clocks has many traditional ingredients of a fairy tale - a wicked duke in a spooky castle; his beautiful ward; a handsome young prince and an impossible task; plus a monster and a helper. Out of these, Thurber whips up the most delicious, light and frothy confection. (Mary Hoffman Mslexia)

5 Books every child should read by the time they are 11. Joanna Nadin, author of 'Penny Dreadful is a Magnet for Disaster'. (Big Issue)

The 13 Clocks is James Thurber's sublimely revamped fairy tale, in which a wicked Duke who imagines he has killed time, and the Duke's beautiful niece, for whom time seems to have run out, both meet their match, courtesy of an enterprising and very handsome prince in disguise. Readers young and old will take pleasure in this tale of love forestalled but ultimately fulfilled, admiring its upstanding hero ("He yearned to find in a far land the princess of his dreams, singing as he went, and possibly slaying a dragon here and there") and unapologetic villain ("We all have flaws," the Duke said. "Mine is being wicked"), while wondering at the enigmatic Golux, the mysterious stranger whose unpredictable interventions speed the story to its necessarily happy end.