Publishers Weekly
06/27/2022
When 11-year-old Virgil Pepper and his siblings, 19-year-old Joshua and 15-year-old Kaitlyn, head to spread their mother’s ashes at her favorite forest haunt, Little Lost Lake, the engine on their camper van unexpectedly blows. Their artistic father hasn’t joined them, and though the kids’ science teacher mother taught them excellent survival skills, escalating disasters follow their arrival alongside a wild electrical storm. The siblings lack food and water, the only nearby structure is the eerie “Sasquatch museum,” Kaitlyn injures her ankle falling from a tree, and a fast-moving wildfire cuts off the soon-separated siblings’ path to safety. Vividly wrought, scientifically grounded text layers facts to develop the protagonists’ plight, while occasionally pace-slowing flashbacks hint at their parents’ differing worldviews. Lawrence (Deadman’s Castle) draws from his experience fighting forest fires; that expertise informs harrowing descriptions of the out-of-control blaze, creating an elucidating and hopeful portrait of grief amid the natural world. Characters cue as white. Ages 9–12. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Deadman's Castle:
“Lawrence, the Canadian writer whose High Seas Trilogy encompassed three chilling historical novels, now offers a menacing, contemporary tale of dread, danger, and revenge. Portraying family dynamics and middle-school antics with equal insight and attention to detail, Igor’s first-person narrative is absorbing.”–Booklist
“Featuring effective worldbuilding, this is a great, suspenseful tale of terror for upper middle graders”.–School Library Journal
“Friendship difficulties provide a contrast and an anchor to the terrifying threat, and the various plot elements are deftly tied together in a fitting twist that will have readers quickly turning the pages. Filled with suspense and intrigue."–Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
2022-05-10
A trip by three siblings to scatter their mother’s ashes in a wilderness lake turns dire.
Eleven-year-old Virgil, 15-year-old Kaitlyn, and 19-year-old Joshua Pepper are taking Rusty, their family’s old camper van, to Little Lost Lake, miles into the Pacific Northwest wilderness, to scatter their mother’s ashes. It is a place filled with special memories for Virgil, as it’s where his beloved science teacher mother taught him wilderness skills like using the stars as a compass and building a fire without matches. Thirty-three miles into the trip on the cratered dirt road known as the Boneyard, Rustybreaks down. There is no cellphone signal, and the siblings discover they have forgotten the food and water. The only nearby dwelling is a creepy so-called Sasquatch museum—a run-down trailer, its fence decorated with animal skulls and antlers—that their mother hated. To make things worse, a lightning strike has started a forest fire. Kaitlyn is injured while climbing a tree as a lookout, and the siblings plan a course of action—Joshua will go off for help, and Virgil decides to try to fix Rusty. But their plans go awry, and Virgil becomes lost and separated from the others as the fire rages closer. Clutching the box with his mother’s ashes, he must remember everything she has taught him in order to survive. This page-turning and atmospheric adventure story also teaches fascinating science skills. Characters read as White.
A superb tale of survival and courage. (Adventure. 9-13)
