about the book
Having your house burn down is usually a bad thing, but twelve-year-old Gabriel Ashe views his family’s move to stay with his Grandmother Elyse at the ancestral Temple House estate as a chance to start over in a new school. At his old school, his classmates constantly taunted him because his father crafted puppets. They cruelly nicknamed him “Puppet Boy”.
His grandmother, a quirky but famous horror book illustrator, has warned Gabe to steer clear of the forest behind the mansion. When asked why, her only comment is, “The woods are weird.” Of course, that just spurs his curiosity. Turns out the woods are not only weird, but dark, dead silent, and very, very creepy.
Exploring, Gabe almost stumbles into a trap—and meets a strange skinny kid, Seth Hopper, also twelve. Before long, Gabe is spending every day joining Seth in imaginary play. As two royal robbers, Prince Meatball (Gabe) and Prince Wraithen (Seth), they are stalking a humanoid mutant beast, The Hunter, which steals and eats children. But as summer’s end nears, the imaginary game, based on an old local rumor, seems way too real to Gabe.
Learning his new friend is the school’s outcast, Gabe doesn’t want to be harassed because of his friendship with Seth. He decides to forgo the fantasy games and make friends with more popular kids. Seth is devastated, and when threatening pranks begin, Gabe thinks Seth is just trying to get back at him. But then Gabe realizes that someone…something…is watching him from the edge of the tree line. Then really strange things start to happen. Very scary supernatural things!
Maybe Seth’s game isn’t imaginary. Maybe The Hunter is real after all. If it is, Gabe’s baby sister is in danger. Only his Grandmother believes him, and she knows secrets! Can Gabe uncover the truth before anyone else gets hurt…or dies?
about the author
Dan Poblocki was born in Providence, Rhode Island. When he was eleven, his family moved to Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and it was there that he and his friends would gather and try to freak each other out with the scariest stories. Dan’s were always the best. As a matter of fact, his friends’ moms started calling his mother, complaining that her son’s horror stories where scaring the pants off their kids and causing all sorts of nightmares!
Dan loved living in small towns and exploring dark woods or whatever else was just beyond the horizon. That and his great spooky stories eventually sparked the need to put words down on paper. He never shared what he wrote. He just didn’t think he was good enough. But in 1999, he met some people who offered helpful criticism, and he submitted his first manuscript to a publisher. Now he is the author of eight heart-pounding novels!
Life is good! Though Dan still keeps very busy with a full-time day job, you can find this Syracuse University drama graduate up way before dawn in his tiny one-room Brooklyn apartment. That is where he writes and battles his own neighborhood monsters…with a little help from his cats, Pedro and Tavi!
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Jean Book Nerd
Author interview: Fantasy Book Critic
Author interview: Middle Grade Ninja
Also by Dan Poblocki:
The Book of Bad Things. Scholastic. 2014.
The Ghost of Graylock. Scholastic. 2012.
Monsters and Mischief (Mysterious Four, Book 3). Scholastic. 2011.
Clocks and Robbers (Mysterious Four, Book 2). Scholastic. 2011.
Hauntings and Heists (Mysterious Four, Book 1). Scholastic. 2011.
The Nightmarys. Random House Books for Young Readers. 2010.
The Stone Child. Random House Books for Young Readers. 2009.
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