Raptor by Paul Zindel

Hyperion Books For Children, 1998

ISBN: 0786823747

Available: New and Used

When Zack and his Native American friend Ute explore the cave where Zack’s paleontologist father was mysteriously injured, they discover a strange nest with very large eggs. Zack, thinking they might be worth a lot of money, takes an egg with him despite Ute’s warnings that he should leave it be. Ute is right, of course. As soon as she and Zack get the egg home, it hatches into (surprise!) a baby raptor, and not thirty minutes later, its mother comes by looking for junior. And all of that happens in the first fifty pages! Teens will love the fast pace of this book. It opens with a gruesome raptor attack, so there’s no waiting around for dinosaur action, and there’s a thrill in every chapter. I also loved Zack’s eating a live grub to impress Ute’s wise old grandmother. Why, you may ask, is a supposedly extinct raptor roaming around the Utah desert? Well, that’s the book’s big mystery and I won’t spoil it for you.  Situations are extremely contrived, the characters are painfully flat, and the writing is awkward, overdone and melodramatic. The scenes involving raptors attacking people were well described, fun to read and surprisingly gruesome. Personally, I rooted for the raptors to chomp Zack and Ute and end this silly novel early on, but teen readers, especially boys, will eat this story up.

Contains: gore, violence, adult alcohol use.

Review by Horror Master