The Emperor's Gruckle Hound
Digital version – browse, print or download
Can't see the preview?
Click here!
How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.
BfK Newsletter
Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!
Cover Story
This month BfK features Jane Ray’s cover for The Twelve Dancing Princesses. We’re particularly delighted to have the opportunity to use this illustration as it enables us to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Orchard Books - they’re 10 this year! And also to thank them for their help in producing our July cover.
The Emperor's Gruckle Hound
You've never heard of a gruckle hound? Well, that's not surprising. 'Lots of people haven't. They're very rare and exotic, and not in any of the books. They're from Austria. They live in the mountains and hunt gruckles. That's why they're called gruckle hounds.' At least that's what young Fred, the gardener's assistant, tells the Emperor to get himself out of a spot of difficulty to do with muddling up the presents on the Emperor's birthday. Needless to say the beast in question is a scruffy mongrel and he has a twin brother out in the city who's been taken in by the tinker's daughter, Anna. In the palace Sam, the gruckle hound, gets used to a life of pampered luxury while outside Scruff gets up to all manner of doggy things. Chaos and confusion then reign when the two dogs inadvertently swop places. With a nod to 'The Emperor's New Clothes' and the role reversal genre, this is lots of fun for nine-year-olds and up.