Doom Stone, The - Hardcover

Zindel, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060247266 ISBN 13: 9780060247263

Publisher: HarperTeen, 1995

Synopsis

A killer beast—half-man, half-apelike—terrorizes the English plain on which Stonehenge lies. Fifteen-year-old Jackson Cauley, with the help of his anthropologist aunt and a local girl, has tracked down the predator’s lair. But the source of the beast’s power lies in the ancient Doom Stone of Stonehenge, and unless its secret is unlocked, the deadly slaughter will continue.

1995 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (ALA)
1996 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
1997-98 Texas Lone Star Reading List
1998 Soaring Eagle Book Award Honor Book (WY)

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Zindel (1936-2003) was born and raised on Staten Island in New York. After teaching high school science for several years, he decided to pursue a career as a playwright. His first play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Shortly thereafter, he wrote his first novel for young adults, The Pigman, which has gone on to sell millions of copies. Mr. Zindel wrote more than fifty books over the course of his life, including the popular My Darling, My Hamburger; The Pigman’s Legacy, a sequel to The Pigman; and the autobiographical The Pigman and Me.

From Booklist:

Gr. 6^-10. Young adult readers who complain about the lack of gore and suspense in YA fiction will change their minds after reading Zindel's latest foray into the horror genre. Although his Loch (1994) did have several scary scenes, the Loch Ness monsterlike creatures were essentially peaceful and were just protecting themselves when they crunched people. Here, the slimy creature stalking the moors around Stonehenge, mutilating people, is truly evil as well as bloodthirsty and physically repellent. Fifteen-year-old Jackson is thrilled to be visiting his aunt Sarah at her latest archaeological dig near Stonehenge. But before he even arrives at the site, he witnesses a brutal attack on a young man. Later that night, his aunt is attacked by the creature, and its "saliva" invades her body, creating a bizarre linkage that lets the creature control her mind and gain her knowledge. Teaming up with Alma, a pretty, young girl who lives near the site, Jackson has several terrible encounters with the monster, solves the riddle of the doom stone that controls the creature, and discovers a clan of subterranean-dwelling creatures that are somehow linked to the monster. But that's another story. Even reluctant readers won't be able to put this one down. Chris Sherman

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0060247266
• ISBN 13: 9780060247263
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192