Skip to main content

Storm Runners


Storm Runners
by Roland Smith
Scholastic, 2011. 143 pgs. Fiction.

After Chase's father is struck by lightning, he sells everything and goes on the road with a portable repair shop that specializes in disaster prep, fixes, and cleanup. When they arrive in Florida just before Hurricane Emily makes landfall, he leaves Chase at a circus animals farm while he goes to St. Petersburg to set up shop. Too bad Emily comes ashore where Chase is and he and two friends barely escape with their lives when their school bus goes into the water. Trying to make their way back to the farm they fall from crumbling levees and have to outmaneuver killer crocodiles. **SPOILER ALERT** When they finally make it back home, the farm house is gone. Taking shelter in the barn, they . . . . And that's where this book ends. A cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers, Storm Runners reads more like an old-time movie or magazine serial than even the first book in a series. Readers will have to wait until September when Book 2--Storm Surge--hits the bookshelves to find out what happened to the pregnant elephant and where out there in the dark the escaped leopard is waiting. Yikes!

Comments

Marsha Judkins said…
Sounds like quite a story! I haven't even read it and can't wait to find out what happens next!

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...

Review: Finding Lost

Finding Lost By Holly Goldberg Sloan New York: Rocky Pond Books, 2025. Fiction. 208 pages. Middle schooler Cordy, along with her mom and little brother, Geno, are still learning how to adjust to their life after “The Accident,” a tragic boating accident that cost their father’s life. When Cordy is walking home from school one day, she finds a little stray dog who the family nicknames Lost, and as he joins their family, he helps them rediscover all of the beauty that life has to offer. Holly Goldberg Sloane delivers a heart-warming and poignant novel about loss, family, and perseverance. This was a well-written novel that could appeal to a wide range of readers. Any middle schooler will be able to relate to Cordy’s experience of dealing with change, and those who have experienced a similar loss will be sure to find solace in this beautiful story.