Lump, the ugliest boy in the world, is abandoned in the forest, where he is found and taken in by a witch. With a bear for a nanny, a genie as a servant and only a cat to talk to, the household is a strange one, but Lump grows up knowing nothing but love. Until one day he has to go out and face the world - and meets rejection at every turn. This is the story of Lump's difficult journery to adulthood, his craving for the magical powers of his mother and his search for love and acceptance, set against the backdrop of a world full of natural magic in delicate balance, where the slightest disturbance can be catastrophic.

 

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards

This book features in the following series: Thorndike Literacy Bridge, Thorndike Literacy Bridge Young Adult .

There are 304 pages in this book. This book was published in 2006 by Simon & Schuster .

After an English degree and work as an editor, Michael Gruber studied marine biology, spent time in the Army as a medic, received a Ph. D. for a study of octopus behaviour and was then a chef and a roadie before entering the civil service, a career that took him to Washington. It was there that he began ghost-writing a bestselling series. He has published two novels under his own name, Tropic of Night (03) and Valley of Bones (05). He is married, with three grown-up children and an extremely large dog.