Loch - Hardcover

Paul Zindel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0370324307 ISBN 13: 9780370324302

Publisher: Bodley Head, 1995

Synopsis

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Sonar screens stalk the astonishing massive water creatures that have been sighted in a remote Vermont lake. Fifteen-year-old Loch Perkins is aboard the Revelation, a high-tech search yacht. When the first creature explodes from the deep. With deadly, frightening power, it almost devours his girlfriend, Sarah, the daughter of a wealthy publishing mogul. The expedition's photographer'hoping for a shot that will make his career'is not as lucky. . . . Suddenly, the hunters have become the hunted.

In the days that follow, Loch plays a deadly game to save those he loves from the jaws of these prehistoric killing machines. At the same time, he tries to prevent the creatures from being destroyed by a man who will stop at nothing to be the first to obtain proff that one of the world's most enduring legends is based upon fact.

Paul Zindel's Loch is an edge-of-the-chair, electrifying rite of passage with teeth.Recently, locals near a remote, deep Vermont lake reported sighting massive water creatures. Fifteen-year-old Loch is thrilled to find himself part of an expedition to prove that one of the century's most enduring legends could indeed be based upon astonishing fact. Then, suddenly trapped at the end of the lake by a wall of skiffs, trawlers, and a high-tech search yacht, one of the dagger-toothed beasts explodes from the deep with deadly, frightening power. Now, the hunters have become the hunted. In the hours that follow, Loch must use every ounce of his courage to rescue the ones he loves from the jaws of these prehistoric killing machines—and discover a way to prevent these mysteriously intelligent creatures from being exterminated. "Fast, furious, and masterful."—K.

1995 Recommended Books for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (ALA)
1995 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Zindel is the author of Loch and The Doom Stone, both ALA Recommended Books for the Reluctant Young Reader. Reef of Death is his twentieth young adult novel for HarperCollins.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The Loch Ness Monster lives in this latest adventure by award-winning author Zindel (The Pigman and Me, 1992, etc.). The beast resides in small Lake Alban in Vermont with his wife and little monsters, trapped there by a man-made salmon grid that blocks the lake's opening back to the deep waters of Lake Champlain. The monster is no mythical creature here but a plesiosaur--a prehistoric cetacean that has survived until the present. Loch, a 15-year-old so nicknamed because he claimed to have seen the Loch Ness Monster (``Nessie'') ten years earlier in Scotland, lives with his father, Dr. Sam Perkins, and his younger sister, Zaidee, near the lake. Dr. Sam, a marine biologist, works for Anthony Cavenger, who spends fortunes seeking out monsters like Big Foot and Nessie. After reported sightings at Lake Alban, Cavenger and his pseudoscientific, paramilitary organization go to Vermont to investigate. They find the plesiosaurs--who have not devolved like the once fierce sturgeon, as an unlucky photographer and a local yokel discover the hard way. Ruthless Cavenger intends to take the animals alive, dead, or blown to bits. But Loch, Zaidee, and Cavenger's teenage daughter, Sarah, have discovered and befriended a young plesiosaur. They realize that the plesiosaurs are highly intelligent and sensitive creatures, and that it is up to them to save the magnificent beasts. Fast, furious, and masterful. (Fiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bodley Head
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0370324307
• ISBN 13: 9780370324302
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 131