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Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird
Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird: Yeti Rescue
Ever since Sammy discovered that there are crazier animals in the world than just lemurs and lions, his life has become pretty weird. So when a Mongolian Death Worm turns up at his zoo, he's not that surprised. The Death Worm needs help: his best friend, Bert the Yeti Chief, has gone missing. Can Sammy summon the Ministry of Yetis and rescue Bert? He's going to need help from his old friends Donny and Red, not to mention a very reluctant Wish Frog.
- GenresFantasy
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2013
7 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Eleanor Hawken
18 books11 followers... Throughout school I kept a diary, wrote bad poetry, song lyrics and stories. I wanted to grow up and be an actress, or a rock star, or maybe both. It never occurred to me that I could be a writer. Writers were good at spelling and had neat handwriting.
After school I went to Kings College London and did a degree in philosophy – I worked little and played hard, somehow I still passed. It was around then that I realised I wanted to become a writer. I was at a party telling a friend about a book I’d been reading. “Seriously,” I said. “The Northern Lights is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! Philip Pullman has created a masterpiece – if I could write something like that then I’d die happy”. And then it hit me, like a thunder bolt. That’s what I had to do with my life, I had to become a writer.
After university I headed home – which was now in Canterbury – and pretended to still be a student whilst trying to write stories. One day my mother confronted me. Mum: You should get a proper job. Me: But I don’t know what to do. Mum: What do you like? Me: Books?
So I moved back to London and started working in publishing. Children’s publishing. I then moved to the beautiful city of Bath to work for Parragon Books as a writer and editor on their Disney team. It was at Parragon that the idea for Will Solvit came about… and the kind people at Parragon let me write my crazy idea down… and it became a book…and that book became a series…
As Will Solvit was launched into the world, I was put in touch with the lovely people at the Miles Stott Children’s Literary Agency. And they agreed to help me get some of my other stories published. By this point I’d had an idea for a book about a boy whose family owned a zoo. Except I didn’t want to write about normal zoo animals like lions and tigers and bears, I wanted to write about weird animals. Animals that people believe don’t actually exist – animals like werewolves, phoenixes, death worms and yetis.
After my first Sammy Feral book was written, I decided to quit my job in Bath, leave my lovely flat and my friends behind and board a plane with my boyfriend, Luke, to travel the lengths of the Americas. Some friends of mine had kindly leant me a small laptop to travel with, and it was during my travels that I wrote The Blue Lady. I wrote in beach-side cafes, jungle huts, tropical islands, dusty cities and ancient ruins. We were in Itacare in Brazil when I had an email from my agent telling me that Quercus Children’s Books wanted to publish Sammy Feral’s Diaries of Weird.
After we returned home from our adventure of a lifetime, we moved back to London and both got jobs. Luke found a job that allows him to wear a fancy suit and tell people what to do all day, and I found an awesome job as a part time fiction editor for Simon and Schuster Children’s Books, which is great as it still gives me time to write. Within a year of being back on English soil, The Blue Lady was signed by Hot Key Books and Quercus signed another two Sammy Feral books. So I had a busy year in 2012 trying to get everything written…
And at the end of 2012, Luke – who I travelled the world with and has supported me every step of the way on my rocky quest to become an author – became my husband.
Luke and I still live in London, he still wears a suit and tells people what to do, and I work part time editing other people’s books whilst writing my own. I’m currently working on a follow-up book to The Blue Lady. It will be another ghost story, and I love every minute of writing it!
- excerpted from her website
After school I went to Kings College London and did a degree in philosophy – I worked little and played hard, somehow I still passed. It was around then that I realised I wanted to become a writer. I was at a party telling a friend about a book I’d been reading. “Seriously,” I said. “The Northern Lights is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! Philip Pullman has created a masterpiece – if I could write something like that then I’d die happy”. And then it hit me, like a thunder bolt. That’s what I had to do with my life, I had to become a writer.
After university I headed home – which was now in Canterbury – and pretended to still be a student whilst trying to write stories. One day my mother confronted me. Mum: You should get a proper job. Me: But I don’t know what to do. Mum: What do you like? Me: Books?
So I moved back to London and started working in publishing. Children’s publishing. I then moved to the beautiful city of Bath to work for Parragon Books as a writer and editor on their Disney team. It was at Parragon that the idea for Will Solvit came about… and the kind people at Parragon let me write my crazy idea down… and it became a book…and that book became a series…
As Will Solvit was launched into the world, I was put in touch with the lovely people at the Miles Stott Children’s Literary Agency. And they agreed to help me get some of my other stories published. By this point I’d had an idea for a book about a boy whose family owned a zoo. Except I didn’t want to write about normal zoo animals like lions and tigers and bears, I wanted to write about weird animals. Animals that people believe don’t actually exist – animals like werewolves, phoenixes, death worms and yetis.
After my first Sammy Feral book was written, I decided to quit my job in Bath, leave my lovely flat and my friends behind and board a plane with my boyfriend, Luke, to travel the lengths of the Americas. Some friends of mine had kindly leant me a small laptop to travel with, and it was during my travels that I wrote The Blue Lady. I wrote in beach-side cafes, jungle huts, tropical islands, dusty cities and ancient ruins. We were in Itacare in Brazil when I had an email from my agent telling me that Quercus Children’s Books wanted to publish Sammy Feral’s Diaries of Weird.
After we returned home from our adventure of a lifetime, we moved back to London and both got jobs. Luke found a job that allows him to wear a fancy suit and tell people what to do all day, and I found an awesome job as a part time fiction editor for Simon and Schuster Children’s Books, which is great as it still gives me time to write. Within a year of being back on English soil, The Blue Lady was signed by Hot Key Books and Quercus signed another two Sammy Feral books. So I had a busy year in 2012 trying to get everything written…
And at the end of 2012, Luke – who I travelled the world with and has supported me every step of the way on my rocky quest to become an author – became my husband.
Luke and I still live in London, he still wears a suit and tells people what to do, and I work part time editing other people’s books whilst writing my own. I’m currently working on a follow-up book to The Blue Lady. It will be another ghost story, and I love every minute of writing it!
- excerpted from her website
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 28, 2021
Read this five years ago at 14.
September 13, 2016
Weird Fun
As Sammy observes, "Mongolian death worms, missing Yeti Chiefs and retired wish frogs. Weird by anyone's standards...right?" Yes, but let's back up a bit.
Sammy Feral lives with his Mom and Dad and brother and sister at the Feral family zoo. Also living at the zoo are Donny and Red. Red is a moody emo teen with telekinetic powers. Donny is a famous cryptozoologist, cryptozoology being the study of imaginary and mythical animals.
But of course it turns out that "imaginary" and "mythical" are rather fluid concepts, and the Feral family zoo is where the real versions of these beasts tend to end up. And cause problems. Or need help.
You don't really need a coherent plot for a book like this. In this one, there is some folderol about a Mongolian Death Worm who is searching for his kidnapped pal, the Yeti Chief. Sammy, Red and Donny assist the Worm with the reluctant aid of the Wishing Frog. As you might imagine, this quest is soaked in mayhem and complications. What you do need in a book like this is an agreeable narrator/hero, engaging characters, interesting guest characters, and a lot of snappy banter and weird action. This book scores high marks in all of those categories.
Twelve year old Sammy has an excited by basically rational voice, and is an appealing guide through the otherwise lunatic proceedings. The book is meant to be, more or less, drawn from his diary and his chatty narrative and his deadpan acceptance of the more outrageous episodes is what really grounds and sells the story.
Mom, Dad, the siblings, and Red and Donny are the insane/manic/odd/endearing characters who perk up the proceedings. Even though they are over the top they don't wear out their welcome and their basic weirdness adds spice to the tale. The guest characters, (including the already mentioned Worm, Yeti and Frog), are the ingredients that add variety from book to book, (an earlier book is heavily into werewolves), and the author really lets himself go in animating the personalities of these characters.
But finally, you have to play this for grins and chuckles, and that's where the book works especially well. There is a certain amount of nervous hand wringing by Sammy, considerable banter between Donny and Red, and some very dry, deadpan smart mouth from Worm, Yeti and Frog. There is no violence beyond mild cartoon violence and the menace mostly takes the form of pithy one-liners, so this is purely fun action/adventure.
The quality of the writing is quite high; I think the more manic the action the more restrained and tightly crafted the writing has to be, or else the whole thing spins out of control. And the author keeps this enough under control for it to be accessible to and satisfying for a younger reader.
So, some laughs, some adventure, and imagination to burn. Weird.
Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
As Sammy observes, "Mongolian death worms, missing Yeti Chiefs and retired wish frogs. Weird by anyone's standards...right?" Yes, but let's back up a bit.
Sammy Feral lives with his Mom and Dad and brother and sister at the Feral family zoo. Also living at the zoo are Donny and Red. Red is a moody emo teen with telekinetic powers. Donny is a famous cryptozoologist, cryptozoology being the study of imaginary and mythical animals.
But of course it turns out that "imaginary" and "mythical" are rather fluid concepts, and the Feral family zoo is where the real versions of these beasts tend to end up. And cause problems. Or need help.
You don't really need a coherent plot for a book like this. In this one, there is some folderol about a Mongolian Death Worm who is searching for his kidnapped pal, the Yeti Chief. Sammy, Red and Donny assist the Worm with the reluctant aid of the Wishing Frog. As you might imagine, this quest is soaked in mayhem and complications. What you do need in a book like this is an agreeable narrator/hero, engaging characters, interesting guest characters, and a lot of snappy banter and weird action. This book scores high marks in all of those categories.
Twelve year old Sammy has an excited by basically rational voice, and is an appealing guide through the otherwise lunatic proceedings. The book is meant to be, more or less, drawn from his diary and his chatty narrative and his deadpan acceptance of the more outrageous episodes is what really grounds and sells the story.
Mom, Dad, the siblings, and Red and Donny are the insane/manic/odd/endearing characters who perk up the proceedings. Even though they are over the top they don't wear out their welcome and their basic weirdness adds spice to the tale. The guest characters, (including the already mentioned Worm, Yeti and Frog), are the ingredients that add variety from book to book, (an earlier book is heavily into werewolves), and the author really lets himself go in animating the personalities of these characters.
But finally, you have to play this for grins and chuckles, and that's where the book works especially well. There is a certain amount of nervous hand wringing by Sammy, considerable banter between Donny and Red, and some very dry, deadpan smart mouth from Worm, Yeti and Frog. There is no violence beyond mild cartoon violence and the menace mostly takes the form of pithy one-liners, so this is purely fun action/adventure.
The quality of the writing is quite high; I think the more manic the action the more restrained and tightly crafted the writing has to be, or else the whole thing spins out of control. And the author keeps this enough under control for it to be accessible to and satisfying for a younger reader.
So, some laughs, some adventure, and imagination to burn. Weird.
Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
January 8, 2015
love the Sammy Feral books that I have read so far and can’t wait to continue with this fun and sort of goofy series. Sammy’s family owns a zoo and in the first book some strange things happened to all of his family but him. (I won’t say what in case you haven’t read it.) Because of what happened he met Donny and Red who go around tracking mythological creatures.
Donny and Red have been staying at the zoo and nothing in Sammy’s life is ever normal. Everything that happens is always making into his diary of weird. It gets weird when a poisonous death worm comes to the zoo looking for the wish frog because his best friend Bert, the Yeti has been kidnapped. Yep, it’s getting weird!
Sammy wants to help Genghis, the worm find his friend and that means calling in the Ministry of Yeti’s which leads to some interesting weirdness.
Feral family home turning into a yeti hideout = level 7 on the Feral Scale of Weirdness!
Yeti rescue is filled with a lot of fun and adventure and extreme weirdness and that is what makes it a great book for young readers.
Donny and Red have been staying at the zoo and nothing in Sammy’s life is ever normal. Everything that happens is always making into his diary of weird. It gets weird when a poisonous death worm comes to the zoo looking for the wish frog because his best friend Bert, the Yeti has been kidnapped. Yep, it’s getting weird!
Sammy wants to help Genghis, the worm find his friend and that means calling in the Ministry of Yeti’s which leads to some interesting weirdness.
Feral family home turning into a yeti hideout = level 7 on the Feral Scale of Weirdness!
Yeti rescue is filled with a lot of fun and adventure and extreme weirdness and that is what makes it a great book for young readers.
March 29, 2015
I read the first book in this series for my Chatterbooks group, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. So when I'd finished my list for Children's Book Day and could choose my own reading again, I decided to check out the sequel.
Sammy Feral's family may not be werewolves anymore, but that doesn't mean the weirdness is over. Far from it. A wish frog, a Mongolian Death Worm and a horde of Yetis make sure of that.
Sammy has to juggle saving a kidnapped Yeti with school and friends and 'normal' life. He does so in his own inimitable style. Kids will simultaneously wish their lives were as exciting as Sammy's and be grateful that it is not!
A great kid's read, that adults can enjoy too. I did.
Sammy Feral's family may not be werewolves anymore, but that doesn't mean the weirdness is over. Far from it. A wish frog, a Mongolian Death Worm and a horde of Yetis make sure of that.
Sammy has to juggle saving a kidnapped Yeti with school and friends and 'normal' life. He does so in his own inimitable style. Kids will simultaneously wish their lives were as exciting as Sammy's and be grateful that it is not!
A great kid's read, that adults can enjoy too. I did.
June 14, 2016
My five year old son picked this one out at the library and 'really wanted to read it'. Since it's going to be a challenge for ehis reading level it's been the bed time story for the last couple of weeks.
Well, the little fellow enjoyed it and there were parts where I thought he wasn't following it but then he'd mention plot points which showed he was engaged throughout.
It's clearly aimed at older children and some of the content skirted the boundaries of acceptability for a little boy (well, at least his Dad - he found some of the 'animal faeces' slapstick hilarious!). The structure of the book was quite original with plenty of art, images which interact with the text etc. I'll have to get used to text speak in kids books now I think.
It was okay.
Well, the little fellow enjoyed it and there were parts where I thought he wasn't following it but then he'd mention plot points which showed he was engaged throughout.
It's clearly aimed at older children and some of the content skirted the boundaries of acceptability for a little boy (well, at least his Dad - he found some of the 'animal faeces' slapstick hilarious!). The structure of the book was quite original with plenty of art, images which interact with the text etc. I'll have to get used to text speak in kids books now I think.
It was okay.
December 15, 2014
If the plot seems rather silly, it is. However, it's an easy story to follow, and the silliness makes it entertaining. It's not meant to be classic literature, and it doesn't have any hidden, deep messages about life. This book is the second book in a series, I didn't read the first one, but this story stands by itself. There are references to the first book, but they don't affect this book.
December 29, 2013
Very cute book. I love all the "WEIRD" things that happen to Sammy. Cute series and looking forward to the next book. Happy Reading :). P.S. I myself would love a Wish Frog!!
December 4, 2016
This was strange and fun. Definitely a good read for kids who love mythical and magical talking animals.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews