The Lurkers

Charles Butler

When Verity sees a creepy semi-visible figure in her house, her brother John tells her it is a harmless Lurker. But Lurkers feed on human imagination and this one is using John to become more solid and independent. When Verity discovers the Lurkers' secret plan, she must fight to save her brother's mind. But can she stop them?

Key Stage: K2/3 E; Age 9 +

Review by Chrissi (090407) Rating (8/10)

Review by Chrissi
This is one of those rather disturbing stories, where people cannot see what is happening around them. The narrator is Verity, whose younger brother is one of those annoyingly overactive children with a relentless imagination and too much energy. This all changes when John breaks his leg playing football, he becomes listless and she hears him talking to someone when she knows he is alone.

Strange things happen, with a second Sunday on what should have been a Monday, but no-one else seems to notice. Verity cannot get John to talk to her but she sees a strange creature that appears to be at John’s beck and call. Confronting John, he wants the creature to remain and denies that it is anything but a servant for him. Verity, though, sees that it has drained John of his curiosity and interest in anything around him and is concerned for him. Her concerns increase when people outside the family start behaving in strange ways.

This is one of those books that could give you goose bumps and have you looking from the corner of your eye when things are not quite how you had thought they were. It takes Verity a while to work out that things really are strange, and even longer to force her annoying younger brother to recognise that his companion is not all he seems to be. Even at the end, when she has to behave like a proper big sister and rescue him, there is still a disquieting discovery.

This is an excellent children's story based on a marvellous concept.
Chrissi (9th April 2007)