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Book Cover |
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Excerpt |
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If Fourteen-Year-Olds Had Heart Attacks
Sometime during my battle with the alpha
dog, my shirt had come untucked, allowing Joey to fall out. Now the baby
kangaroo huddled helplessly behind the spinifex clump as the dingo crept
towards it. I was sideways to the drama; I could see exactly what was
about to happen.
I yelled again, but the dingo paid no
attention. It probably hadn't eaten for a week, and it was hot on the
scent of every dingo's favorite meal. My flaming torch had burned down
to my hand, forcing me to drop it. There wasn't time to make another
one, and anyway, I had lost Nathan's lighter. I raced across the moonlit
sand, waving both arms and yelling like a madman. I had no plan. I
didn't know what I was going to do if the dingo didn't run away, but I
couldn't let it eat Joey. It paused just long enough to flash its teeth
in my direction, then turned and pounced across the spinifex.
"Nooooooo!" I cried, hurling myself headlong
through the air.
I caught the dingo in a flying tackle,
knocking it to one side. I landed on top. Because the animal was so
skinny, I nearly crushed it. There was a whoosh of air being driven from
its lungs and the horrible sound of a rib cracking. It let out a yowl of
pain and bit me on the shoulder.
Luckily it was only a glancing bite - more a
nip, really - and I managed to roll away before the dingo could bite me
again. But I rolled into a wall of spinifex.
It wasn't the clump that Joey had hidden
behind. This was a much larger one. It prickled me in about a hundred
different places through my shirt, but I still presses backwards into
it. I was cornered.
The dingo came stalking towards me,
crouching low to the ground, limping slightly. It had forgotten about
the baby kangaroo now - all its hate and anger was focused on me. I had
attacked it, so the dingo probably saw me as a threat to its life. It
was coming to finish me off.
There wasn't time to stand up. I grabbed two
handfuls of spinifex, ripping then out by their roots. As the dingo
rushed forward, I thrust then in front of me. The unfortunate animal ran
straight into them with its mouth wide open.
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Synopsis |
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Sam Fox, a fourteen
year old boy, is in the Australian outback with his older brother,
Nathan, who is a tour guide for an outback adventure company and who is
an expert on everything to do with the outdoors and wildlife. Three
weeks earlier, Nathan had discovered a hidden cave mouth during a desert
safari. Sam had suggested that they explore the cave and they were about
to do so, even though the cave was a long drive out and the outback was
experiencing a heat wave.
After being in the cave
for an hour, they find the bones of a prehistoric kangaroo. When Nathan
takes a picture of Sam standing next to the bones, Sam flinches because
of the bright flash, falls against the bones, and causes a cave-in.
Nathan is covered by the falling debris and Sam has to dig him out.
Nathan has a broken arm and a broken leg. Sam realizes that the only
hope his brother has is for him to climb out of the cave, drive to
Gibson Station, and return with help.
Sam makes his way to
the cave mouth when he hears something. Looking outside the cave mouth,
he sees stars and realizes that his trip's difficulty has just increased
because it is now nighttime. The sound he hears turns out to be hundreds
of scorpions crawling all over the cave floor.
Sam sprints through the
deadly maze of scorpions, hearing crunches with each footfall, goes
flying out of the cave mouth, and finds himself falling, as he forgot
that the mouth was nine feet above the desert floor. Sam lands flat on
his back on a clump of spinifex. Screaming and rolling off of the
prickly plant, Sam makes his way to his brother's Land Cruiser while
wincing in pain from the hundreds of pin pricks he just received.
Sam, not a very
experienced driver, slams on the brakes when a kangaroo jumps in from of
the Land Cruiser. Sam rescues a tiny joey from its dead mother. Stuffing
the baby kangaroo in his shirt, so the joey will feel safe like it is in
its mother's pouch, Sam continues driving through the desert night.
Seeing some headlights in the distance, Sam heads toward them. When the
lights never seem to get closer, Sam realizes that he has been following
the Min Min light and is now lost. Sam spots a helicopter and sees it
land. Heading toward where he saw a helicopter land, the Land Cruiser
gets a flat. Deciding to walk, Sam and the joey head off into the night
when a pack of dingoes surround them. Sam has to fight to keep both he
and the joey alive.
When the last dingo
flees, Sam looks down to see a small red light on the front of his shirt
and realizes that it from a laser mounted on a rifle. Sam ducks down as
he hears gunfire and thinks that there are terrorists in the Outback.
Realizing that time is running out for Nathan, Sam knows that he must
start moving if he is going to save his brother's life, even if there
are terrorist trying to kill him.
Scorpion Sting
is the fourth book in Extreme Adventures series written by Justin D'Ath.
It is a stand-alone book and, according to the author, you do not have
read them in order. The series is intended for readers 9 years and
older.
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Review |
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Scorpion Sting
is another really fun and exciting book about the many adventures of Sam
Fox. This time, Sam must bring back help for his brother, who is laying
injured deep in a cave in the middle of the desert. Sam must make
his way through deadly scorpions, hungry dingoes, and "terrorists."
Sam Fox is the type of
boy that many of us would have loved to have been like when we were
younger, or someone young readers can aspire to be like today. He has a ton of
adventures, although most of them scare the bejezus out of me, and
always seems to find a way out of the messy ordeals. I don't think I
would live through some of the things Sam has survived, like shark
attacks, bushfires, crocodiles, and other scary moments. All the
heart-pounding action in the Extreme Adventures books makes for high
octane storytelling.
Justin D'Ath has
created another highly entertaining book in Scorpion Sting. As in
his previous three books, I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat
as I read this book just hoping that that it would not be end of Sam
Fox. I love the fast pace of these tales and the fact that the stories
take place in and around Australia. Having never visited there, yet, I
long for the day when I step on Australian soil and have my own
adventure, although I am sure it will not be as exciting as the ones
that Sam Fox has. Wouldn't that be cool?
I enjoyed that we
finally got to meet Nathan, Sam's older brother. I was bummed when he
got hurt and Sam had to leave him behind in the cave. How scary would
that be? Being left alone in a pitch black cave with no light and
absolutely no way to see anything at all. I'd bet that your imagination
would start running wild and every sound you heard would make you more
and more nervous. I have been in a few deeps caves over the years. When
the lights are turned out, you cannot see a thing, not even your hand in
front of your face. Talk about scary!
Overall,
Scorpion Sting
is a great addition to an absolutely wonderful action adventure series
starring Sam Fox, a fourteen year old Austrian boy who always seems to
find himself in trouble. I cannot wait to see what kind of trouble Sam
finds himself in next in Spider Bite. It sounds absolutely
frightful.
I rated this book an 8½ out of 10. |
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