The seven grandsons from the bestselling Seven (the Series) and The Seven Sequels return in The Seven Prequels, along with their daredevil grandfather, David McLean. In these thrilling origin stories Eric Walters, John Wilson, Ted Staunton, Richard Scrimger, Norah McClintock, Sigmund Brouwer and Shane Peacock and their signature writing styles take readers from the heat of the jungles of Central America to the mysterious streets of Stockholm to one very dangerous kayaking trip in Florida. These linked novels can be read in any order. Discover all seven books in this action-packed Barracuda Jungle Land The Missing Skull Separated Slide Speed Weerdest Day Ever!
Eric was born in Toronto in 1957, which makes him "real old". But, as Eric says, "Just because I have to grow old doesn't mean that I have to grow up!" In his many roles as parent, teacher, social worker, youth sports coach and writer he is in constant contact with children and young adults. He draws from these experiences and feels that this helps him to capture the realistic interaction between young people—the conflicts, tensions, stresses and interests that make up their lives.
Eric began his writing as a teacher. He taught in classes from kindergarten up and his stories often reflect the curriculum that he was teaching. He always read stories—picture books and novels—to his students and this helped him to understand what children liked, responded to, and were inspired by. He enjoys the enthusiasm of his students and often looks at them to provide him with the inspiration to pursue a particular topic in both the classroom and in his writing.
Eric tries to write every day. When he has a story idea he starts with research. This could involve reading books, watching a documentary, or trying to experience the things that his characters are going to go through. This could include rock climbing or riding white water (for Stars), spending time in a wheelchair (Rebound), playing and walking with tigers (Tiger by the Tail), hanging around a tough biker bar (Diamonds in the Rough), standing out in his backyard in a blizzard wearing a T-shirt and shorts (Trapped in Ice), or traveling to Africa (Alexandria of Africa).
"The most important thing anybody ever told me about writing was to write what you know . . . and the only way to get to know things is to do your homework and research before you write," Eric stated.
Once the writing begins the story is always playing around in his head. He takes any opportunity, even if it's just a few minutes between presentations, to put things down, either with pen and paper or on his laptop.
Prior to entering teaching and writing Eric was a social worker (B.S.W., M.S.W., B.A.Hons—specialized major psychology). He worked in a variety of settings including child welfare, private practice, a mental health centre, and, for twenty years on a part-time basis as a Crisis Social Worker in an emergency department. He stopped teaching 4 years ago and left the ER only last year.
The majority of Eric's time is spent in the company of his wife, children and dogs (Lola a big standard poodle and a little white dog named Winnie the Poodle).
The idea behind these books is quite unique. It started with The Seven Series, where a grandfather, David McLean, who has recently died gives his 7 grandsons a task to complete. Each book is written by a different author, and is written from the grandson’s perspective.
In The Seven Prequels, grandfather David McLean is alive and chooses to take each grandson on a trip with him. Again, each author writes the story from each grandson’s perspective. The only difference is with the story of Rennie in the book ‘Slide’ as Rennie has never met David, and more of his story comes out in the later books.
My overall ratings for each book ranged from 3-4 stars. Some intrigued me more than others, but the uniqueness of each story really appealed to me. These stories are quite short and easy to read. I believe they would appeal to reluctant readers, as most did not have too tough of vocabulary. They also could be read in any order, but I found reading them in the order I did allowed me to notice some of the links between stories.
The order I read them in was:
Jungle Land The Missing Skull Speed Weerderest Day Ever Slide Barracuda Separated