About the The Boy With The Cuckoo-Clock Heart (Paperback)

A boy with a clockwork heart should never fall in love--but in this wildly original, fantastical adventure, of course he does.
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. As Jack gets older, Dr. Madeleine warns him that his heart is too fragile for strong emotions: he must never, ever fall in love. But on his tenth birthday, with head-over-heels abandon, that is exactly what Jack does. Mathias Malzieu's The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a whimsical, incredibly 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.