Creepers [Hardcover]

Keith Gray (Author)

Book Description

Jamie was the best Creeper at school. He could sneak through more yards than anyone else without being caught. He was fast and hardly made any noise. I was surprised when he wanted to Creep with me. I was pretty good, but with Jamie I felt like I could climb over any fence and never get caught.

Then we decided to do Derwent Drive--the longest Creep in the village. You had to move so fast, most of the way along you didn't have time to think. We were halfway down when it happened. I went Haywire. I just freaked out. I don't know why. I'd handled big dogs before, but this time I lost it. I can't believe I did that. I got away, but Jamie was Snared! The police came! What am I going to do now? And what's going to happen to Jamie?

A brilliant first novel about friendship, courage, and loss.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 7^-10. In a country where houses are built close together and fences delineate what little privacy the backyard provides, creeping is an unofficial sport. Teens challenge themselves and each other to the marathon of running the length of a neighborhood through these backyards, scampering over fences, daring angry dogs, and outrunning frustrated homeowners. When the narrator and Jamie creep Derwent Drive, a legendary, difficult creep, Jamie is caught, leaving the narrator with the reputation for going haywire and his buddy in trouble with his family and the police. Soon rumor has it that Jamie is dead, but the narrator knows differently--they'll creep again. This strange, suspenseful British import will likely be popular with a small group of marginalized teens, who will identify with the surreptitious counterculture of creeping, and others who, if they can get beyond the Briticisms, will be drawn into the psychological suspense of an outcast teen trying desperately to salvage his tarnished, albeit slim, reputation. Frances Bradburn

From Kirkus Reviews

A young boy discovers self-confidence and endures the loss of his best friend in Gray's uneven debut. As the story opens, the 14- year-old narrator--whom Gray never refers to by name--and his best friend, Jamie, are on a ``Creep''--running and sneaking through neighbors' yards under cover of night. But when Jamie gets arrested, the protagonist is labeled a ``Nambie'' at school, blasted by other creepers for letting his ``Buddie'' get ``Snared.'' Then a fire destroys Jamie's home, killing him. The narrator's grief and terror are dramatically conveyed; similarly, when Jamie suddenly appears at his friend's house the following evening, claiming to have escaped the fire completely, readers will feel the narrator's unbounded joy. Their only course of action seems clear, a creep to end all creeps. The thrill of victory is marred only by Jamie's absence; he really did die in the fire, of course, and now exists only in the protagonist's tormented imagination. Many readers will find the lead character's departure from reality too clumsy and contrived to accept. Despite the involving characters and setting, Gray doesn't convey the significance of creeping convincingly, thereby rendering the events of the story none too compelling. (Fiction. 10-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 139 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile; 1St Edition edition (October 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399231862
• ISBN-13: 978-0399231865
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,235,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read Creepers!, October 5, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Creepers (Hardcover)

Creepers is a wierd book because the kids in this book climb over fences and run through peoples backyards. They like to Creep on Derwent Drive, because it is the hardest, it has 50 houses. And they sometimes get bitten by the dogs, step in a garden, or get cut by barb-wire. The only bad thing about this book is that they curse a lot.