Frenzy

by Robert Lettrick

Overview

Camp Harmony. A place to relax, swim in the river, and stage epic water fights. A time to escape and admire the outdoors. That was how Heath Lambert wanted to spend his summer. But nobody told him that he would spend it running for his life. Almost every animal in the surrounding forest-thousands of them, from squirrels to wolves-has gone on the attack. Even the camp's horses! If Heath and his friends are to stay alive, they have only one place to go. But getting there is just half the battle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423186960
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/14/2015
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	621,253
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Robert Lettrick (www.robertlettrick.com) has worked as a freelance artist for Marvel Comics, Marvel Films, and Harris Publications. He earned his BA in fine arts at Atlantic Union College and was one of the first students enrolled in the Sequential Arts MA program at Savannah College of Art and Design, where he learned from many writers and artists. Frenzy is his first middle-grade novel.

Editorial Reviews

"[R]eaders who have chewed through Goosebumps or similar titles will appreciate the gruesome terror of this Night of the Living Dead meets The Island of Dr. Moreau story in a classic summer-camp setting."— Booklist

"Offer this to adventure fans and budding horror buffs, sure, but realistic fiction fans may also find the effective character development and thoughtful pacing as worthwhile as the monstrous foaming-mouthed squirrels."— BCCB

From the Publisher

06/01/2014
Gr 6–9—What's not to love about Camp Harmony? Fourteen-year-old Heath likes the setting and activities, and he's even made friends. But the wolves are howling, the horses are skittish, and by the time the rabid porcupine goes on the attack, camp isn't so much fun anymore. Suddenly every single animal for miles around is frothing at the mouth and gunning for humans. Heath and the last remaining survivors attempt to make their way back to civilization, fighting not only the wildlife but their own demons. Among the gang are the fat kid, the bug-obsessed kid, horse-mad twins Em(ma) and Em(ily), the former bully, the little girl, and Machiavellian chess player Will Stringer, whom Heath describes as "operating on a whole different level than the rest of them, like Einstein or Batman." The pace is breathless (with a brief time-out for a swimming lesson) and the scenario plenty gory and horrifying. Heath is almost too good to be true—smart, compassionate, genuinely nice, and a natural leader—but his secret explains a lot of that, and he's not annoying about it. Readers who like their horror strewn with corpses, leavened with compassion, and rooted in reality will find this one entertaining indeed.—Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal

2014-01-29
Summer camp turns deadly: fluffy, foaming, frenzied and deadly. Heath Lambert is settling in at coed Camp Harmony. He's made some friends, and with the help of new acquaintance Will, Heath avoids having to spend the summer running errands for the camp bully. Normal camp routines of horseback riding and postcard writing come to a screeching halt when the small (and not so small) woodland creatures suddenly all turn rabid. When they bite a human, purple lines spread over the victim, and they die instantly. Heath, Will and several others escape to the nearby river, since exposure to water seems to kill the animals on contact. The group decides the disease must be an airborne form of rabies, given the animals' symptoms. They travel down the river in hopes of reaching the nearest town, but the animals follow along on the riverbank, keeping the campers in sight. Can Heath and his friends survive the crazed animal attack? Lettrick's middle-grade debut is most successful during the many action scenes and in the slow reveal of certain facts about the characters. That it takes the old wives' tale that rabid animals are afraid of water and runs with it is acceptable, but the premise disintegrates at the end as the author forces events to reach his desired end. The character deaths are predictable, and the end, too tidy. Never achieves the scare it intends. (Horror. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews