Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom

by Allan Wolf

Overview

Part mystery, part fantasy-adventure, part riveting real-life disaster, this deft tale-within-a-tale blends the history of the 1980 Lake Peigneur drilling accident with a fateful quest for pirate treasure.

When thirteen-year-old Junius Leak—expert on waterbodies and creator of the encyclopedic Amazing Waterbodies of the World—steps foot on Uncle Spot’s rickety dock on Lake Peigneur, the truth assails him: he may love waterbodies, but that doesn’t mean they love him back. The latest in a long line of Junius Leaks, he’s the first to be doomed to ten days of awkwardness and boredom on a houseboat with a relative he doesn’t know while his parents “work on” their marriage. Delcambre, Louisiana, where Junius was born, is awash with unwelcome surprises. He determines to learn why his mom left town when he was a baby—and to conquer his fear of water at the same time. But the lake has other plans for him, plans tied to a hundred-year-old family feud and a swashbuckling mystery. When disaster strikes, Junius must dive deep within to emerge an unlikely hero. Alternating viewpoints spin the perceptions of a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)—and the wry voice of a lake with a long memory—into an inventive tale of sunken treasure and buried secrets anchored by a dramatic true event.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536244939
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	07/01/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Allan Wolf is the author of several picture books, poetry books, and young adult novels, including The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party, The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic, Who Killed Christopher Goodman?, and Zane’s Trace. He lives in Roanoke, Virginia with his wife and three children.

Allan Wolf is an educator-writer-musician extraordinaire. He has literally hundreds of poems committed to memory. He is a veteran traveler through all the diverse worlds of poetry—from poetry slams to public schools, salons to saloons. He turns classic poetry into acoustic tunes as the drummer for The Dead Poets band. He put the Oh! in poetry as the educational director for national touring company Poetry Alive! Allan Wolf knows poems.

This expertise was exhibited in Allan Wolf’s first book with Candlewick Press, The Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems About Our Parts. A collection of wacky—and anatomically correct—poems about body parts, The Blood-Hungry Spleen is transforming science classes across the country. Before starting the book, Allan Wolf drew on inspiration from his stint as Poet in Residence at a school in Seoul, Korea. “A sixth-grade life science class had displayed their poems about anatomy on a life-size chart of the human body,” explains the author. “There was a poem about the intestines on the intestines. A poem about the brain was written on the brain.” Since then, he says, “the human body has proved to be an infinite universe of poetic inspiration.”

Allan Wolf’s next book with Candlewick Press, New Found Land: Lewis and Clark’s Voyage of Discovery, also reveals the writer’s poetic roots. The exhilarating tale of Lewis and Clark’s journey is written in poetic form: a medley of lyrical and powerful voices from the surprisingly diverse crew. “During the four years it took to research and write New Found Land, my head was constantly crowded with the novel’s fourteen voices,” Allan Wolf says. “They talked to me as I made breakfast, as I dressed the baby, as I delivered newspapers, and as I brushed my teeth. They talked and talked. Alone in my car I began to talk back. And together all fifteen of us worked out the details of the story. Happily, my head is now quiet, the voices having moved to their permanent home within this book.”

More recently, Allan wrote Zane’s Trace, a coming-of-age road story with a supernatural twist, and The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic, featuring twenty-four haunting voices of the Titanic tragedy, including the iceberg itself, evoked in a stunning tour de force.

Allan Wolf lives in North Carolina with his wife and three children.

Editorial Reviews

Wolf's latest weaves a dazzling tale. . . .Considering the vividly depicted events, the strong cast, and the young protagonist’s personal triumphs, there’s wow-worthy content aplenty here.
—Booklist (starred review)

Wolf (The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep) blends swashbuckling mystery with ecological disaster in an epic novel. . . . Weighty topics such as grief and mental health are empathetically tackled by Wolf, who deploys captivating prose to spin a clever and engrossing adventure.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

This expansive, multilayered tale combines a pirate treasure mystery, environmental science and activism, Cajun cultural influences, and deep acceptance of and compassion for neurodivergence. An immersive and grounded story of becoming and self-discovery.
—Kirkus Reviews

Like its doomed lake, Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom spins you around, pulls you in, and lifts you up again, revealing buried treasure along the way.
—Alan Gratz, New York Times best-selling author of Refugee and Heroes

In a swashbuckling swirl of fact, fantasy, pirates, treasure, and science, Allan Wolf introduces us to Junius Leak, an almost teen who assures us that nobility and courage lurk in the most timid heart.
—Ann E. Burg, acclaimed author of All the Broken Pieces and Flooded: Requiem for Johnstown

From the Publisher

2025-04-04
A lake recounts its historical connections to the family of a boy who’s been “exiled to a strange, watery land.”

“I am a lake, so let me be clear,” insists Lake Peigneur, an ancient body of water deep in Louisiana’s Mississippi Delta. But for Junius Leak, who’s nearly 13 in the summer of 1980, things are far from clear. From the lake’s perspective, the reason for the return of the latest in a long line of Junius Leaks to his birthplace is obvious, with origins in 1820, involving pirates and the first infant Junius. While his parents attend a retreat to work on their marriage, the current Junius, who reads white, faces a surprise trip to Delcambre, Louisiana, to stay with a maternal uncle he’d never heard of. Despite upsides, like new friends, Aunt Boudreaux (a sassy and occasionally problematic cat), and firsthand experiences with his special interest (bodies of water), the move has downsides, too, like how terrifying such bodies of water can be up close and the frustrating lack of communication around his biggest family-related questions. Although the term was coined in the mid-1990s, Junius’ mom is a self-described “highly sensitive person”; she tells her son, “June Bug…us HSPs have to stick together,” and the book includes helpful coping mechanisms. This expansive, multilayered tale combines a pirate treasure mystery, environmental science and activism, Cajun cultural influences, and deep acceptance of and compassion for neurodivergence.

An immersive and grounded story of becoming and self-discovery. (author's note, glossary, resources, map)(Adventure. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews