Title: Creature of the Night
Author: Kate Thompson
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Genre: Young Adult
Age level: 8+
Themes: Solving mysteries, adventure, engaging in risky behavior, danger
Synopsis: Bobby isn't afraid of a little danger. He thrives on it. Smoking, drinking, racing stolen cars: All the cops in Dublin know him and his gang. But the real danger might not be in Dublin after all. Bobby's mother has just moved their family to a quaint house in an idyllic village where he's meant to reform. Only something's not right about that house. The previous tenant mysteriously disappeared. Stories of murder surround the family who lived there for years. And now even Bobby's little brother talks about a strange visitor who comes to the house at night. Bobby isn't afraid of a little danger. But this danger isn't like the rush of driving fast. It's not like the reckless thrill of getting high or the sudden strength of his mother's temper. This danger lurks and creeps and won't go away. This danger is more like the suffocating helplessness of his own future. Bobby isn't afraid, he just wants to know one thing: Who is the Creature of the Night?
Synopsis: Bobby isn't afraid of a little danger. He thrives on it. Smoking, drinking, racing stolen cars: All the cops in Dublin know him and his gang. But the real danger might not be in Dublin after all. Bobby's mother has just moved their family to a quaint house in an idyllic village where he's meant to reform. Only something's not right about that house. The previous tenant mysteriously disappeared. Stories of murder surround the family who lived there for years. And now even Bobby's little brother talks about a strange visitor who comes to the house at night. Bobby isn't afraid of a little danger. But this danger isn't like the rush of driving fast. It's not like the reckless thrill of getting high or the sudden strength of his mother's temper. This danger lurks and creeps and won't go away. This danger is more like the suffocating helplessness of his own future. Bobby isn't afraid, he just wants to know one thing: Who is the Creature of the Night?
About the author: Kate Thompson was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1956. Her family moved to Leamington Spa when she was 8, then Worcester when she was 15. Though her house was always full of "interesting" people, but she spent most of her time at the riding stables and racing yard than being in conversations. Early on she loved writing stores, and in her teenage years she wrote poetry and songs, but she didn't start writing seriously until the late 1980's. She joined the North Clare Writers' Workshop, and produced poems and short stories on a regular basis. In 1992 Knute Skinner, one of the members of the writers' workshop, published a collection of her poems, called There Is Something. Since 1997, she has published at least one book per year.
Pre-reading activities: List the symbols represented on the front cover: dark house/cottage, blue door, trees, dead grass; list students' reactions to each symbol and the emotions sparked by the symbols (despair, fear, mystery, sadness/darkness, etc). Talk about the setting of the story and the students' reactions to the first 2 pages- the family seems poor, Bobby seems like a trouble maker and that is why his mother wanted to move out of Dublin, the mother seems to get into trouble herself and maybe that's where Bobby gets it from.
Post-reading activities: List the main characters and their personality traits, and explain why Bobby wanted to hurt Fluke. The students will also write about a time when they were mad at a family member or friend and thought about harming them or wishing something bad would happen to them. Instead of hurting them, the students could resolve their own problem without violence.
Reflection: This book seemed very dark and mysterious from the cover, but after I started reading it I found it wasn't very mysterious at the beginning. It had some dry parts to it, but each chapter was very short (only a few pages) so it did make me want to read on and find out what happened as the story progressed. I found that there was some obscene language in the book, but I think that it could be handled well in a classroom where the teacher presented it with maturity and let the students know that there would be inappropriate language. I also found some words that the students might be unfamiliar with because of where the story takes place, but it represents a lifestyle different from my own.
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