“Terror at Bottle Creek,” by Watt Key.
Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 2016, 213 pages, Grades 5-7.
Adventure stories are exciting to read. They grip the readers from beginning to end. We identify with the main characters and enter into the world created by the author.
Adventure novels are usually set around a series of dramatic events. Many times these are acts of war or frightening natural events. Watt Key has written such a novel in “Terror at Bottle Creek.” Here we will experience a savage hurricane ravaging the Gulf Coast of Alabama and, people trying to escape the fury of the storm. As well, readers will come to see great acts of love and courage in an unforgiving environment.
Thirteen-year-old Cort Delacroix lives in a houseboat on a river near the Alabama coast. His father is a hunting and fishing guide and an acknowledged expert of the river and coastal areas. Of late, Mr. Delacroix has been despondent because his wife has abandoned the family. The rugged life of the outdoors was too much for her.
They tie up their houseboat to a pillar next to a five-acre parcel of land owned by the Stovall family. Mrs. Stovall is a widow with two daughters, Liza, aged 13 and Francie, 6. Cort has known the family for years and has begun to have fond feelings toward Liza. He is confused by these emotions and suddenly has a hard time talking with the pleasant Liza.
Into this confusing emotional world, ominous news comes over the radio. A Category 3 hurricane is heading toward the coast. Mrs. Stovall leaves to check on a neighbor and Cort’s dad goes to help his disinterested ex-wife, leaving his son to protect the Stovall house, as well the daughters. When the hurricane strikes, all communication is cut off. Francie runs to the garage to check on Cort’s dog, Catfish. But the dog bolts from the building with Francie holding onto the leash. Cort and Liza plunge into the storm to find the child and discover her on the moored but tilting houseboat. Soon, the hurricane wrecks the houseboat and Cort and Liza must fight to save themselves and Francie. Knowing the area as he does, Cort realizes he needs to take the two girls deep into the swamp to avoid the rising storm surge. They have few supplies and soon begin feeling the effects of hypothermia.
Now Cort must make a brutal decision. They can’t stay in the water so they need to find some high ground. But the only high grounds nearby are the Indian mounds at Bottle Creek and he knows that all the animals and alligators in the swamp will flee there. He bravely leads the girls to the Indian mound and gets all three of them into some trees with high branches. But when they look down through the driving rain, they see alligators at the edge of the water and enraged wild pigs and squirming water moccasins covering the ground below. A water moccasin slithers down the branch and bites Liza. Cort knocks the snake off the branch, but knows he must save their lives. As the wind howls, he looks down and sees alligators, wild pigs and poisonous water moccasins. He is 13 years old and unarmed but must decide quickly. What does he do?
Watt Key has written a high-interest, action-packed novel. Both Cort and Liza act with great virtue and both do not know if they will survive the hurricane and attacking animals. Key writes of both children acting with courage in spite of feeling overwhelmed. This makes their actions all the more edifying. The growing tenderness between the two make this a coming of age story as well.
There are several instances of crude comments after alligator and wild boar attacks in the book. But “Terror at Bottle Creek” is a page-turning thriller with the greatness of character developing in Cort and Liza. The novel is on this year’s Golden Sower List for the upper grades. Check it out, you won’t regret it.
