May 18 2012

Wired series by various authors

A and C Black, 2011.
(Ages 11+) Recommended. Quick reads. Horror.
The haunted mobile by Robert Dodds. ISBN 9781 4081 4258 5.
The haunted mobile is a story that all of us can recognise as a horror story for today. When Jake's mobile phone begins to send him messages, asking for help and then texts his friends with messages Jake did not send, he is perplexed. His friends think he is lying, but when the messages become more insistent he takes action.
Beast hunter by Kathryn White. ISBN 978 1 4081 4265 3.
Beast hunter tells a scary story of what may lurk in the old quarry near Jacob's home, a quarry now filled with water. The signs of danger and keep out are a magnet to the boys form the area who spend the summer swimming in the cool water, until one fateful day, one of the boys is drowned. But Jacob has seen something and convincing those around him that what he has seen is a crocodile draws derision from all and sundry. Beast hunter is a neatly resolved, short horror story.
Dead wood by Andy Croft. ISBN 978 1 4081 6335 1.
Dead wood is an environmental horror story of sorts as Holly's family move into an old house near a wood that her father must cit down in the first moves to build a new housing estate. When Holly's friend Ash stays the night weird things happen, resulting in much damage to the house, which her parents blame on the girls, but later when it happens again, her father ends up in hospital. A horror story with bite.
Each of these books is very short, some 60 pages with large clear print and wide margins and a few drawings to break up the pages. Similar to the Lightning Strikes series, these will be eagerly selected by students wanting something quick and easy or for those who want a book which aims at their lower literacy level, or to a classroom teacher wanting a set of books to have for their students to fill in spare moments or build a lesson round.
Fran Knight