World of Adventure 13 – The Creature of Black Water Lake

Gary Paulsen's The Creature of Black Water Lake is a lake-monster thriller for 10 year olds about a new boy who sees something enormous under the water.

What happens

Ryan Swanner is thirteen and has just moved from Louisiana to a log cabin in the Colorado mountains. His mum's got a new job running the restaurant at the Black Water Lake resort. Ryan grew up fishing the bayous, so a lake on the doorstep sounds pretty good to him.

Then he meets Rita, who stops him going for a swim. Nobody's allowed in the water. A diver drowned there last week and they still haven't found him. The locals say there's a monster (Rita's grandad swore he saw it), but Rita reckons it's just a story for the tourists.

Of course the two of them fix up an old raft anyway. Of course they take it out. And of course something with huge yellow eyes looks straight back up at Ryan.

What makes this one properly creepy is the short chapters told from the creature's side. It's ancient, it's hungry and the big fish in the lake are running out. You know it's down there waiting long before Ryan does! Who doesn't love that feeling of knowing more than the characters?

There's a friendly student waiter called Larry who's studying marine biology, an old diary with the monster in it, a sonar screen and a shark cage. It moves fast and it's very easy to keep reading.

A few things to know before bedtime, though. The drowned diver hangs over the whole story, and later the kids find what's left of him in the creature's cave (a crushed air tank and bones). A squirrel gets snatched off a branch. Ryan's dad died in a car accident before the book begins. And there's a very close call in the water. Ryan's also a good few years older than your reader, although the sentences are short and simple.

If your reader loves a monster and doesn't mind a shiver, they'll be gripped. If they're a worrier about deep water, maybe save it for later.

The book finishes with a short page about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and giant squid, which is a lovely extra for curious minds.

What to read next

If they want more of the same, The Treasure of El Patron is another of Paulsen's World of Adventure books, with a thirteen-year-old diver hunting for a sunken Spanish ship off Bermuda.