We are delighted to welcome author Jennifer Killick to the blog today to answer questions about her new book, Dread Wood.
Dread Wood follows a group of Year 7s who have been given a Saturday detention. When they’re at school, the children suspect that something mysterious is happening and things start to get seriously scary. As the story unravels, the children realise that it’s no coincidence that they are all in detention at the same time and in sharing what got them there they discover the importance of not letting mistakes define you…
Jennifer’s Crater Lake series, which was described as ‘howlingly funny horror’ in The Times, has been hugely popular with teachers and students as a class read for Year 6. Read on for our review of Dread Wood and a Q&A in which we ask Jennifer more about the book and about how she achieves the humour-horror balance for which she is becoming so well known.
We’ve added a chance for you to win a copy of the book at the end of the post, too…
Book Title: Dread Wood (available here)
Author: Jennifer Killick
Publisher: Farshore
Publication Date: March 2022
Most Suitable For: Years 5-6
Review:
Four children at Dread Wood High have been forced to attend an outdoor Saturday detention. Their teacher confiscates their mobile phones and it’s a wet cold day. They don’t even like each other. How could their day get any worse?
Suddenly, it turns from dismal to downright dangerous. Their teacher is mysteriously dragged underground into a sinkhole but the children still can’t go home because they’ve been locked in. The only adults they could turn to are the caretakers but their behaviour is definitely unfriendly and increasingly creepy.
Soon, for Angelo, Hallie, Gustav and Naira, sticking with each other is their only hope of staving off mysterious threats and surviving the morning. As they overcome their mutual suspicion, they find out more about themselves and each other than they could ever have guessed – and more about what’s been happening in the basement of their school than they could have imagined in their worst nightmares.
Jennifer Killick skillfully mixes the unsettling and the comic, in the context of a pacy plot. Her light-hearted writing style and liberal use of dialogue effectively capture the voices and characters of Angelo, through whose eyes the story is told, and the other three children. It also makes the characters relatable and realistic, despite the gothic horror of the events.
This book is sure to appeal to a wide audience of children, especially the many who like the Goosebumps series and ‘scary’ books. I am looking forward to sharing it with children in Year 5 and 6 where I know it will be a read for pleasure hit.
Reviewed by: Louisa Farrow
Dread Wood is available to order from BookShop.Org or Amazon .
Q&A
with Jennifer Killick, author of Dread Wood (available here)
1. Can you describe Dread Wood in 5 words?
Do not touch the ground!
2. What are the similarities between Dread Wood and Crater Lake?
There are lots of similarities – a group of brave, brilliant kids taking on a horrifying enemy; plenty of creepy moments to make you jump and gasp; lots of humour to make you laugh along the way.
3. Crater Lake seemed to mark a stylistic turning point for your books, moving more into the horror genre while still retaining your humorous style. What lead you to this point as a writer?
I think it was a natural progression. I love creepy stories full of jump scares and gasp moments, so I wanted to try writing one myself. I didn’t intend for Crater Lake to be humorous, but the jokes and funny moments snuck in anyway, so I decided to go with it. I was delighted when it turned out well.
4. Your writing has been described as “funny and exciting with just the right amount of scary” – how do you achieve this balance?
Mostly I go with my instinct and let my characters lead the way. Whenever I’m in a frightening situation in real life, my family and I usually find ways to laugh our way through it, so it feels natural for my characters to do that, too. I also try really hard to spend time with and listen to my intended audience, and I let them guide me. By understanding them, and what they enjoy, and what scares them, I can gauge what they’ll hopefully love and what will be too much.
5. Which of your books has been your favourite to write?
Probably Crater Lake and Dread Wood. Crater Lake because I had the excitement of trying something new and writing just for myself because I wanted to. And with Dread Wood I had the confidence boost that came with Farshore’s faith in me to write a good book. I love writing the creepy scenes and the funny dialogue, and I got to do lots of that with Crater Lake and Dread Wood.
6. What’s the best thing about being a children’s author?
The best thing about being a children’s author is knowing that my books have made a difference to at least a few children out there. I love hearing that my stories have made them happy, or more confident, and that my stories have made them excited to read.
7. Are any of the scenes in your books based on real things that happened to you as a child – either funny or scary?
Oh yes, there are lots of bits and pieces from my life that have made it into my books! For example, in the ‘Confessions’ chapter of Crater Lake, Adrianne’s secret is something that happened to me at her age and left me utterly mortified. And in a future book, there’s a creepy scene in a toilet cubicle that was inspired by a real-life incident.
8. Which other children’s books are you loving right now?
There are so many amazing authors writing for children right now! Some recent favourites of mine in the creepy/sci-fi/horror genres have been Kirsty Applebaum, Damien Love and Phil Hickes. I am absolutely loving ‘The Accidental Witch’ series by Perdita and Honor Cargill – I think they have such a gift for comic voice. I also love anything by Eloise Williams, and am ridiculously excited to start on her new story for Barrington Stoke – The Tide Singer. She has the most beautiful way with words – I’m in awe.
9. Can you give us any clues about your next writing project?
I feel very fortunate to be working on further Dread Wood stories! I love the characters, and they’re incredibly fun to write, so I am living my best writing life at the moment.
> Order Dread Wood on BookShop.Org
> Order Dread Wood on Amazon
> Visit Jennifer’s website
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***Book Giveaway***
Thanks to the publishers at Farshore, we have THREE copies of Dread Wood to give away to our followers.
To enter, follow @booksfortopics on Twitter and retweet the giveaway tweet between Tuesday 19th April and Monday 25th April 2022 – terms and conditions here.
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Many thanks to Jennifer for visiting our blog and answering our questions.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
