REVIEW OF ROLAND SMITH'S NEW BOOK (remember the hero is based in part on Jon)

They say (whoever they are) that guests and fish start to stink after three days. Since this is only my second guest review, I guess I should still pass the sniff test.  I am a 7^th grade Language Arts teacher at a local middle school.  Our Media Specialist and I often discuss books that we think will be of interest to the kids.  Recently she offered me the chance to read one of my favorite author’s newest creations. I jumped at the chance because Roland Smith does a great job creating stories that feature either young people or animals (my two favorite non-me subjects) as the main characters. I was given a copy ofChupacabra to read, review, and then discuss with our students.

Chupacabra is unusual in the Roland Smith young adult canon, because it is a true sequel in his Cryptid series. He does revisit his favorite characters frequently, but seldom creates true serial youth fiction. So let’s back up a little.  A Cryptid is an animal that is rumored to exist, but is largely considered mythological. Roland Smith has used several in his writing.  He began with a novel called Sasquatch, but this early work is not part of the current Cryptid Hunter series. 


This series began with the eponymous novel, Cryptid Hunters, was continued in Tentacles, and the newest novel is Chupacabra.  A chupacabra is an animal that is rumored to live in the SW US, Mexico, Central America, and South America. The name means “goat sucker” in Spanish because they are said to feed on the blood of goats and other animals. The third book in the Cryptid series continues just after the action in Tentacles.  Once again we find best friends Marty (boy genius with a photographic memory) and Luther (also a genius) plotting to handle seemingly impossible odds while trying to “rescue” Grace (Marty’s cousin although they thought they were twins until recently) from Noah Blackwood’s Seattle Ark.  Noah is clearly the villain in this series although the world thinks he is an animal activist.  His “Arks” seem to be humane zoos, but are in reality a cover for his evil plans for world domination. (OK, he really just wants to get rich and collect rare animals, but you get the point). Marty and Luther recruit Dylan, a member of Travis Wolf’s crew, to help them with Grace’s rescue.  Their plan is complicated because at the end of the last book, Grace seemed to go with Blackwood willingly. He was in the process of kidnapping a pair of dinosaur hatchlings and had a gun pointed at the good guys, but there is still some question about Grace’s motives. Travis Wolfe has been revealed as Grace’s father and is an actual activist specializing in finding cryptids worldwide.  Marty, Luther, and Dylan infiltrate the Seattle Ark and then must outsmart Blackwood’s killer henchmen (Butch and Yvonne) as well as the chupacabra, while trying to free Grace and the hatchling dinosaurs.  The ending has serious revelations for the main characters and an excellent cliffhanger.

Read on...