Crater Lake

Product Information

Yourself and Bob are much cherished in our booky world and I personally really appreciate everything that you do. I haven't charted out my visits for the summer term, but I'm sure there are several in the south) and thanks so much for being so fantastic! It's five months since the nightmare Year Six school trip to Crater Lake, and something has gone very wrong in Lance's home town of Straybridge. She also makes little stabs at educational “norms”, especially the social eugenics of secondary school transfers – Lance knows he will never get into Bing, the selective school Chets is heading for. Impressed with how intense Jennifer Killick is able to make a Middle Grade without it becoming too scary I believe for a child to enjoy.

It starts off badly when a blood-covered man, in a Crater Lake uniform, bangs on the window of their coach. Cleverly, and at exactly the right times, the heart stopping, genuinely nerve shredding scenes are swiftly interspersed and intertwined with boisterous banter, some sarky side comment or a comedy quip from Lance and the gang. She tells the group that they are ‘ the first school to be trying out this centre‘ so are ‘ extremely fortunate.

There is every chance the kids would love all this and the book is OF COURSE written for them not me. Following their near-disastrous Year 6 residential trip to Crater Lake, Lance and his friends are back at home and have started their different high schools. The Crater Lake Activity Centre turns out to be the worst possible place for a school trip, but a totally perfect setting for an engrossing horror tale for brave readers.

I was at my last school for 4 years and we had ********* book fairs every term – and every term, I was disappointed by the narrow range of books. If Emma Carroll is the ‘Queen of historical fiction’ then Jennifer Killick is rapidly becoming the loveable evil overlord of the comedic science-fiction horror. Night Mayor Franklefink has vanished from the Transylvanian Express - and it's up to you to solve the case! Lance’s suspicions are already on red alert, so he’s quick to take the lead to work out what’s going on.

When Lance and his friends go on a residential trip to Crater Lake, they feel something isn’t quite. I have been desperate for a sequel to Crater Lake and was leaping about with excitement after getting this advanced reader copy via Netgalley. With fast paced action and good characterisation, this builds on what went before with the added dynamic of tensions amongst the friends due to transitioning to secondary school. Will his friends and classmates realise the true competence of somebody marginalised as the class clown, destined to fail?