The Creek [Library Binding]

Jennifer L. Holm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2003

Caleb Devlin is a legend on Mockingbird Lane, the boy who terrorized an entire town before he got sent away. They say he hurt other kids, tortured animals, set fires, and did things grown-ups speak of only in whispers. But that was all before Penny and her little brother moved here.

Now Caleb's back, older and more dangerous than ever, and terrible things have started happening again. The whole town knows he's responsible, but the police can't do anything without proof. So Penny and her friends have no choice but to try to stop him themselves.

Except now he's after them.

A sleepy summer is filled with dread in this tense and absorbing thriller by acclaimed Newbery Honor author Jennifer L. Holm.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-This Stephen King-esque thriller has potential, but is torpedoed by sloppy writing. Penny, 12, spends her time hanging out with a gang of boys down at the local creek. Enter Caleb Devlin, a legendary teenage terror whose criminal behavior had him sent away years ago. When pets begin vanishing in the neighborhood, it seems obvious to most residents that Caleb is behind the disappearances. Penny's dreams are haunted by visions of this young man who both fascinates and repels her. As she and her friends investigate, they have numerous close scrapes with menacing characters, yet their parents and the police are inexplicably unhelpful. In the final chapters, Penny works through a ludicrous, shifting roster of suspects, until the highly improbable culprit is found. The story misses the mark on several levels. The writing is weak, relying on contrived phrases, absurdly inapt similes, and jarring lapses in logic. Upon completing this novel, readers will be as clueless about some of the characters' motivations as when they began.
Douglas P. Davey, Guelph Public Library, Ontario, Canada
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-8. Holm, author of several historical novels about girls grappling with puberty, gives the theme a contemporary twist, adding trappings of a creepy thriller that pushes the story well beyond the wan child-plays-detective stuff so prevalent in youth mysteries. Penny, almost 13, is content to spend her summer hanging out with the boys on her block. But this year, their games are charged by rumors about exciting, sexy, Caleb Devlin, who gives Penny strange, shivery thrills. When increasingly disturbing things happen in the neighborhood, culminating in the vicious murder of a young child, Caleb is the prime suspect. Taut, well plotted, and with a smooth arc of suspense, this does more than deliver a good story; it also addresses some of puberty's difficult emotional changes and raises challenging questions about moral issues. To Holm's credit, everything isn't necessarily resolved, Caleb is a "bad boy," (though not in the expected way), and despite the dead child, there's no over-the-top violence. What stands out most, perhaps, is Holm's chipping away at the literary taboo Robert Cormier cracked open in his Rag and Bone Shop (2001); child murder and young children as murderers are not the province of children's books. Kids often see worse on the evening news, but this skillful, surprising novel may raise some adult eyebrows. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Library Binding: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060001348
• ISBN-13: 978-0060001346
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,302,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Turtle in Paradise started with a story my mom liked to tell about her childhood. During the summers, her grandmother would take her to Key West to visit her relatives. Her mother made her promise to "shake her shoes out." My mom didn't know why her mother wanted her to do this, but she did it anyway. And then one hot day, she shook her shoes and out popped . . . a scorpion!

Writing Turtle in Paradise was a wonderful way to re-connect with my Key West heritage. My great-grandmother, Jennie Lewin Peck, emigrated from the Bahamas to Key West at the turn of the century. She considered herself a "Conch," what the local Key West folks called themselves, after the native mollusk that so many fished for in the Bahamas. Nana was always talking about how she missed sugar apple ice cream and Spanish limes. When my editor, Shana Corey, started asking me about Nana and my Key West family, I just knew that there was a story somewhere in there.

Researching this book was also an interesting way to experience a different side of living through the Great Depression. While Key West suffered significant economic hardship (the town went bankrupt and the majority of the citizens were on economic relief), it didn't have the same sort of feel as most of the depression stories I was used to hearing--soup lines, tent cities, and the Dust Bowl. Key West was warm for one thing, and there was plenty of free food, courtesy of the sea. One man told me, he ate lobster during the Depression! Key West was a freewheeling town full of characters and bygone industries--sponge fishing, rumrunners, and, of course, pirates! It had all the ingredients for a fabulous setting.

I hope you enjoy reading Turtle in Paradise as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you ever go to Key West, be sure to shake out your shoes!







Brother and sister team, Matthew Holm and Jennifer Holm, grew up playing with stuffed mice. Today Jennifer is the author of several highly acclaimed novels, including the Newbery Honour book, 'Our Only May Amelia'. Matthew is a graphic designer and freelance writer. Neither of them have mice, although Jenni does have a small son who likes cheese a lot and Matt has a weasel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Creek review from a 15 year old bookworm, August 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Creek (Library Binding)

Well, if you never read a book by Jennifer L. Holm, here is a great book to start with. This book is for anyone that likes a good suspense novel when you have tons of time on your hands and feel like just reading a good book.

Well it starts out with a girl named Penny (12) who hangs out with her friends, Mac, Benji, Oren, Zachary, and her brother, Teddy. But after a while, things start changing on the block that Penny lives on. Celab Devlin returns and things start getting really scary for everyone. Before Celeb left dogs, cats, turtles, and even people showed up hurt which makes everyone in the town, panic over his return to the neighborhood. Everyone thinks he's back to his old habits, recking havoc all over town again. But, when a girl shows up dead, Penny knows something everyone else doesn't know, which sends her on her own to find the real murderer.

So if you're in need of a good book, I would HIGHLY recommend THE CREEK by Jennifer L. Holm. And if you like this book by her, read her other two history books, (which I just finished, and, even though their history, they don't seem it at ALL) Boston Jane and Wilderness Days. Enjoy!!!!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could Be Better, July 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Creek (Library Binding)

Jennifer Holm's newest, THE CREEK, sure is a page turner. It's full of suspense. It's edgy -- a child gets killed.

HOWEVER. The book takes place in a contemporary time, but it "feels" like it's set in the 1950's -- or some time past. This opinion gleaned from the dialogue and what the kids do for fun and even what the parents do (what kind of parent nowadays bakes cookies for the neighborhood kids? Sadly, not many. How common, even in a small time, is a pediatrician seeing patients in his home after hours?) and the basic details of everyday life (Oldsmobile? They've been out of business for some time, now. Trans Ams were pretty tough, like, a generation ago.) This isn't necessarily a "bad" thing; this story COULD take place any time, any where.

ALSO, though suspenseful and plot twisty, upon a second reading, the clues just aren't there. Holms needed to take a lot more care here. It's cool that the villian is someone unexpected, but the foreshadowing NEEDS to be dropped appropriately. Never was. And much of the story had unexplained holes, seemingly there just for suspense's sake without any basis (obvious once the reader has finished the book): why did Caleb try to run the kids in the truck off the road? Why the little situation in the woods between Penny and Caleb? Why did Penny keep her resulting action a secret? (The one put forth by Penny makes no sense.) What about Caleb's friend? How come he's never mentioned but that one time in the woods, or developed in any way so he can become one of Penny's suspects? Better question: why is he there at all? Why does Penny continue to swim in the creek alone or venture into the woods solo after all those traumatic incidents she's experienced? Why does she learn to shoot a BB gun? That's never developed, either. And why the little romantic interlude between Penny and Benji -- it sort of fizzles with no explanation. The kid who turns out to be the bad guy -- we get no inkling it's him, there's nothing there to even hint at it. There's no evidence that he had an opportunity to perform all the horros that occur. ...

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing work, August 23, 2006

By 

Canadian Reader "Canadian Reader" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Creek (Hardcover)

This is possibly one of the most dreadful books I've recently read. I have not read Ms. Holm's Newbery Honor Book Our Only May Amelia, and, while I recognize that the book under discussion here represents a different genre for the author (horror rather than historical)I was expecting good writerly skills at least. As a teacher librarian, I am always on the look-out for scary titles for kids; however, as "scary" as some kids might find this, I would not want to put it on my school library's bookshelf. First of all, it is not clear who the intended audience is. Penny, the protagonist, is 12 (but in certain regards seems much younger than the twelve-year-olds I know), making it seem as though the book is intended for 10 to 12 year olds. The gore, however, as well as the sexual innuendo--Penny is attracted to neighborhood bad-boy and purported murderer Caleb--make the book more a young adult title. I found Penny and her friends problematic in more ways than this, however. The ongoing suggestion and, in some cases, description of animal suffering and torture were alarming. Frankly, I found it hard to believe that a 12-year-old should be so detached about the disappearance of her cat. The way the cat "re-appears" is not at all reassuring. Several times through the book, kids sit around burning ants (and, in one instance, worms) with magnifying glasses. Overall, I found Penny to be an unsympathetic and amoral creation. I didn't like her one bit, and I don't think many of the students I know would either.
I have had a chance to read one of Ms. Holm's Boston Jane books, which, though not a favorite, had its merits. This book, however, was disappointing, and frankly not something I like seeing kids waste their time on.