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Young readers book reviews for ages 8 to 12 years old





  
Also by Max Elliot Anderson:

Big Rig Rustlers
Legend of the White Wolf
Mountain Cabin Mystery
The Newspaper Caper
North Woods Poachers
Secret of Abbott's Cave



 

Terror at Wolf Lake
by Max Elliot Anderson
ages 9-12 144 pages Baker Trittin Concepts November 2003 Paperback    

Eddy Thompson is a classic example of a boy gone wrong for lack of parental direction. This twelve-year-old boy has a father who thinks nothing of taking a vehicle for a test drive for a week with no intention of buying it. Naturally, Eddie is a cheat – he cheats at school and he cheats at games with his friends. In Max Elliot Anderson’s adventure tale set in a snowy cabin in Michigan, Eddie Thompson confronts a situation where he has to question his own and his father’s penchant for cheating.

When the fathers are out ice fishing, Eddie and his friends stay back at the cabin to occupy themselves by playing games. As luck would have it, two particularly inept thieves come to the cabin with a suitcase full of money. When the police chases them to the cabin, the thieves, erroneously assuming that the cabin is uninhabited at this time of the year, drop the suitcase and run away. When Eddie and his friends come across the suitcase filled with money, the author Anderson uses the situation to have the characters debate right and wrong. Naturally, Eddie wants to keep the money, while his friends want to give it to the police. The change in Eddie’s thinking is set up in a very plausible way, one that most readers can identify with.

In a terrifying incident that may be uncomfortable for some young readers, Eddie and his friends confront the thieves again. Anderson, perhaps deliberately, makes the thieves comically funny which makes the middle part of the book particularly interesting. Anderson’s books typically have a significant thrill quotient and this book does not fall short. As a bonus the reader is confronted with a protagonist who is not perfect, yet, in the end makes the right decision.
 
Young readers book reviews for ages 8 to 12 years old

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  Ram Subramanian/2005 for curled up with a good kid's book  






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