Dread Wood

Jennifer Killick's Dread Wood is a scary story for 9 year olds about four kids stuck in Saturday detention when things start to go missing.

What happens

Angelo, Hallie, Gus and Naira are not friends. Angelo flipped a table in the dining hall. Naira launched a tray. Now the four of them are locked inside Dread Wood High on a Saturday with super keen Mr Canton and his "Back On Track" session. (He says hashtag out loud. The kids are not impressed.)

Then a scream rings out across the empty grounds. One of the school's piglets has vanished. Soon after, so has Mr Canton.

The groundskeeper's wife is tiny and frail. So why can she lift a well lid that must weigh as much as a grown man?

Angelo tells the story, and he's great company. He's a loner who looks after his little brother and does odd jobs to help his family. He loves the school pigs and knows all their names. He's also a lot kinder than anyone at school gives him credit for.

The other three are just as good. Gus can't stop joking, even when he's terrified. Hallie is fierce and loud and melts around animals. Naira is the perfect pupil who turns out to be hiding a lot. Watching them go from "Club Loser" to a proper team is half the fun. At one point they have a very silly argument about what each of them would taste like if they got eaten. (Gus is apparently fajitas.)

This one is properly scary, though, so it's good to know what's in it. A teacher gets pulled under the ground right in front of the kids, and he's already bleeding from a head wound. An old lady throws a live chicken down a well and whoops with joy. There's a bit of swearing too, mostly the "what the hell" kind.

If your reader is easily spooked, it's probably one for daytime. If they love a real fright with plenty of laughs in between, they'll race through it!

What to read next

For another gang of kids who don't fit in at a school where something isn't right, try The Demon Headmaster. Lloyd and Harvey are two of only five normal children at their school, and they're dreading the new girl who's coming to live with them.