Review: A great adventure story for children!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2011
A great adventure story for pre-teens. Twelve year-old Jack has a bad feeling about his parents' planned trip to the Lake District. It is just before Christmas and the holiday location is plagued with snow storms. When they arrive at the Lake District, Jack notices a strange man and his wife in a white van; they have a small girl with them whose face appears haunted. Jack feels that something is not right. The man notices that Jack is staring at him and does not take kindly to the attention. The white van almost hits the car that his dad is driving and from that point Jack is convinced the man is trying to kill them. The next encounter with the strange, angry man ends in disaster and Jack and his cousin Rosie are then caught up in a desperate race to escape from the man and also to save Jack's father's life. The story will appeal to children as an adventure, as they follow Jack and Rosie's quest for survival. It keeps you interested with the twists and turns in the storyline, so that you are never quite sure what will happen next, and the dramatic climax towards the end of the book is intensely enthralling. Jack learns a lot about his cousin Rosie and a lot about himself by the end of the book. The characters are all well developed and there is a great deal of educational content for children. I would highly recommend this book by a very promising new writer.