Stonewolf - Softcover

Brenda Seabrooke's most recent book, Cemetery Street (Holiday House), was a nominee for the Edgar Award and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Award for best young adult book. She lives on an island in Englewood, Florida. Visit her website at www.childrensbookguild.org/seabrooke.htm.

Grade 5-8–Nicholas is whisked away from the miserable orphanage to a castle where he is poked, prodded, and carefully observed by men belonging to an organization called "The Synod." Despite the luxury of grand surroundings, he is clueless about his reason for being there and suspicious of his new guardians. Finding refuge in the castle gardens, he teaches himself to read by sneaking children's books from the library. Pretending not to understand their language, Nicholas learns that the Synod plans to pick his brain for repressed memories of his parents' secret experiment formula. Recollections about a dog named "Wuffy" seem useless to his exploitive wardens and they bring in a spiky-haired runaway, Larka, to befriend and snitch on Nicholas. He becomes fond of her despite her deception and suspects they are both destined for disposal. The duo escape across the moat into the surrounding hills and a helicopter chase ensues. The action is fast paced and becomes even more suspenseful when Nicholas discovers the secret formula is in his backpack, hidden in an illustration of a stonewolf in a coveted children's book. Nicholas and Larka's wilderness-survival adventure is realistically portrayed and more developed than the convenient rescue and unsatisfying ending. The secret formula and the Synods are never explained and the protagonists' future is unresolved. The book has a great start and interesting characters, but it falls apart at the end.–Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY