Beast: Face-To-Face with the Florida Bigfoot

by Watt Key

Overview

Beast is a fast-paced adventure of guts and survival, this time with a paranormal twist, from acclaimed author Watt Key...

Adam says he can’t remember where he was for the two months he went missing in a Florida swamp. That’s not true. He does remember. The truth: He was driving with his parents, and the car crashed when his father swerved to avoid colliding with a giant Sasquatch-like creature standing in the highway.

Haunted by his parents’ disappearance and hounded for claiming to have seen Bigfoot, Adam sets off into the deadly wilderness on a hunt for answers as to what really happened that night. The answer he finds is more terrifying—and more fascinating—than he could have imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374313692
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	760L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Albert Watkins Key, Jr., publishing under the name Watt Key, is an award-winning southern fiction author. He grew up and currently lives in southern Alabama with his wife and family. Watt spent much of his childhood hunting and fishing the forests of Alabama, which inspired his debut novel, Alabama Moon, published to national acclaim in 2006. Alabama Moon won the 2007 E.B. White Read-Aloud Award, was included on Time Magazine's list of the Best One Hundred YA Books of All Time, and has been translated in seven languages.

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2020

Gr 5 Up—Adam Parks remembers seeing something in the road that night and despite the policeman's suggestion, it definitely was not a bear. After a car crash leaves Adam in the hospital and his parents missing, presumably dead, the news reports that he saw a Sasquatch and his lucidity is now in question. Adam, not even knowing what a Sasquatch is, looks it up online and finds hundreds of hits with descriptions of "Bigfoot'"and "Sasquatch." Off to prove himself, Adam takes off into the black snake and alligator waters of Suwanee River in search of the mysterious creatures and proof that he is right. There, Adam finds an answer and learns that the secrets of the Suwanee are more beautiful than he could have ever imagined. The heavy topics of losing parents and graphic descriptions of eating from dead carcasses may make this title appropate for an older middle grade audience. VERDICT As with all of Keys's amazing books, give this to the reluctant reader seeking an outdoors adventure or to someone who loves survivalist fiction.—Stephanie Wilkes, Good Hope Middle School, West Monroe, LA

School Library Journal

2020-01-12
Thirteen-year-old Adam feels compelled to uncover the mystery of his parents' disappearance, even if it means facing a monster.

An accident on a forested Florida road late at night leaves Adam in the hospital and his parents missing. Adam saw what his father swerved to avoid but can't believe it: a massive, manlike beast. He tells the police, which leads to a newspaper article, but the official search for his parents is fruitless. Still, Adam can't stop thinking about both accident and beast. Taken in by his uncle, Adam's suspended from his new school on his first day for fighting about the newspaper article. He finds reports online of other sightings, one fairly close by, and hikes overnight to learn more from the man who spied it. The man's intensity scares Adam off, but Adam's a hunter and comfortable in the outdoors, so he equips himself and heads into the wilderness to find answers. After a harrowing trek and near starvation, Adam discovers the terrifying truth behind the legends. Readers will identify with Everykid Adam, who finds he can't trust what he's always been told about the world. Walking a fine line between the fantastic and the realistic, Key creates a scary, page-turning adventure spun from his own experience (set forth in an author's note). Characters are assumed white.

This compelling cryptid fantasy has its big feet planted firmly in realistic survival fiction. (Fantasy. 8-14)

Kirkus Reviews

Walking a fine line between the fantastic and the realistic, Key creates a scary, page-turning adventure spun from his own experience (set forth in an author's note). . .This compelling cryptid fantasy has its big feet planted firmly in realistic survival fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Key’s adrenaline-packed story chops through palm fronds with a machete, trudges through soul-sucking mangrove mud, and struggles to breathe above the merciless, snake- and alligator-infested currents of adventure as Adam, armed with supplies and a stolen boat, revisits the site of his parents’ accident to track the Bigfoot. . .A thrilling journey of determination, ideal for fans of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, as well as Call of the Wild.” —Booklist

“As with all of Keys’s amazing books, give this to the reluctant reader seeking an outdoors adventure or to someone who loves survivalist fiction.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher