The Lightning Catcher

by Anne Cameron, Victoria Jamieson (Illustrator)

Overview

The first book of a funny fantasy and adventure series about three friends who discover they have the ability to control the weather. It's Storm Chasers meets The 39 Clues, in a story that Booklist called "fascinating . . . mixing serious science with full-on fantasy."

Eleven-year-old Angus's world is turned upside down when he is mysteriously whisked away to become an apprentice at the Perilous Exploratorium for Weather and Vicious Storms. At Perilous, the world's most dangerous weather is studied to protect mankind from its ravages. There, Angus discovers that his parents aren't boring government workers after all—they are actually famous Lightning Catchers, and they've been kidnapped. With the help of two loyal new friends, Angus intends to find them. This fast-paced, action-packed, funny story of friendship, adventure, science, and mayhem begins a high-octane four-book series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062112781
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/07/2013
Series:	Lightning Catcher , #1
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	962,699
Lexile:	NC1070L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Anne Cameron got the original idea for the Lightning Catcher series after reading an article about fulgurites, which are formed when lightning strikes sand with such ferocity that it melts the particles together and forms amazing, rootlike glass tubes. What would happen, she wondered, if lightning bolts could be caught deliberately, by expert lightning catchers?

Anne Cameron lives in England.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4–6—It's an amazingly familiar premise: a boy with absent parents and unusual abilities finds himself in a school that teaches arcane knowledge, where he makes friends and enemies, experiences all kinds of eerie and dangerous goings-on, discovers secrets he isn't supposed to know, and fights the most dangerous and evil villain in the world. Angus McFangus, 11, has been living with his Uncle Max while his parents supposedly do something for an unnamed government office. After he receives a strange letter from his mother, he is whisked off to the Perilous Exploratorium for Weather and Vicious Storms on the mysterious Isle of Imbur. There, he is told by Principal Dark-Angel that he must lie about his identity, and he meets Ron and Hermione-oops, I mean Dougal and Indigo. He's thrown into training to become one of the "lightning catchers," special agents who "protect mankind from the ravages of weather at its most cruel and extreme." Storms of newts, killer fogs, and wacky weather attacks of all sorts are the norm. The Isle of Imbur and all the weather-weirdness are interesting, but the rest feels tired and overdone.—Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal

While a certain spunkiness pervades British author Cameron's debut novel (first in a planned four-book series), it's let down by an over-reliance on familiar middle-grade fantasy conventions. Eleven-year-old Angus lives with his eccentric inventor uncle (his parents are conspicuously away on covert assignment). In the middle of the night, a peculiar stranger arrives and insists that Angus must accompany him to the previously unknown Isle of Imbur. There, Angus begins his apprenticeship as a "lightning cub" at the Perilous Exploratorium for Violent Weather and Vicious Storms, where he learns the secrets of his lightning-catching powers and the threats that he and his fellow apprentices are there to stop. Readers may embrace the novel's genial goofiness—Cameron casts a ragtag team of characters with such monikers as Delphinia Dark-Angel, Scabious Dankhart, and Catcher Sparks. But while the author writes evocatively of unusual weather patterns, the story never veers off its predictable path, and the humor doesn't go far enough in punching holes in the source material it draws from. Ages 8–12. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Genial goofiness.” — Publishers Weekly

“Storms of newts, killer fogs, and wacky weather attacks of all sorts are the norm.” — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Praise for THE LIGHTNING CATCHER: “Mixing serious science with full-on fantasy.…With a motley collection of instructors, dangerous lightning dragons, a cinematic setting, and all manner of malevolent treachery, this fantastical adventure will find a wide audience.

Booklist

A trainee at the Perilous Exploratorium for Violent Weather and Vicious Storms on the Isle of Imbur tries to find his missing parents and prevent the unleashing of an eternal storm. Eleven-year-old Angus McFangus is unexpectedly wrenched from the Devon home he shares with his inventor uncle Max to Perilous, where lightning catchers train to protect the world from extreme weather. Angus learns his own parents are respected lightning catchers who have mysteriously disappeared on an assignment involving the villainous Scabious Dankhart. He also discovers he's a storm prophet--he has the rare ability to predict the weather. Adjusting to the perils of Perilous, Angus barely survives the weather tunnel and fog field trips while bonding with fellow trainees Dougal Dewsnap and Indigo Midnight. Worried about his parents, Angus concludes Dankhart has them and is using bizarre meteorological disasters to distract Perilous from his dastardly plot to "wreak havoc and cause delicious mayhem." Despite the dangers, Angus, Dougal and Indigo bravely set out to thwart him. With its trio of likable school-chum heroes, its eccentric characters and their ingenious names, its imaginative boarding school setting and its supernatural adventure, this first of a projected four-book series has inevitable Harry Potter echoes. Inventive weather-themed fantasy makes for decent, if derivative, fun. (maps) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews