Expected publication: March 13, 2012
Publisher: Sweetwater Books, an imprint of Cedar Fort
While visiting his crazy Uncle Bart at Crater Lake National Park, thirteen-year-old Ethan's world collapses when all the adults at Crater Lake disappear, including his parents. Now Ethan must rally his new friends and decipher the legends of Crater Lake to find the key to rescuing his parents from their earthen prison before he's captured too and their captivity becomes permanent.
My review:
Five kids are left on their own in Crater National Park when everyone over the age of 16 is swallowed up by the ground. Ethan, Jordan (Ethan's little sister), Brady, Allie, and Jacob must go to some extraordinary measures led by an unlikely source to save everyone by a certain time or they will be trapped forever.
Crater Lake started off a little confusing for me. I had trouble following what was going on and all of the different characters. After the initial part, the story progresses smoothly and has a lot of twists and turns to grab your attention. Some of the children don't like each other, and other ones don't even know each other, but they have to learn how to get along and work together to save the adults and themselves. Along the way, they have to test their physical and mental limitations and figure out what they can believe and who they can trust. Steve Westover has created a world that is very imaginative and full of adventure and mystery. Overall, I think it is a good book for older middle-grade and the younger YA readers.
A copy was provided by the publisher for review.
About the author:
Steve Westover has always enjoyed writing, but he had never even considered writing a novel until one morning he woke up with the idea for some characters in his mind. He was curious if he could write a book so he thought he would give it a shot as an experiment. After a long process of writing, nearly giving up mid-way through, editing, shopping for a publisher, changing the title and editing some more, his first book, Defensive Tactics, is being published through Cedar Fort on the Bonneville Books imprint, and will be in stores in August 2010.
Crater Lake: Battle for Wizard Island is his second book and was written with his oldest daughter and son in mind. They are avid readers who turned him on to books like Fablehaven and Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which he really enjoys. So, as a father trying to please his children, he wrote Crater Lake for them.
You can find out more about Steve Westover and Crater Lake on his site, blog, and the Book Poster page.
Great review! I've read a few pages of this one myself, so it was great to hear what you thought of it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun book. I'll have to share this one with my students after I've had a chance to read it.
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