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American Chillers #5
Terrible Tractors of Texas
A part of the American Chillers collection.
208 pages, Library Binding
First published April 1, 2002
13 people are currently reading
260 people want to read
About the author
Johnathan Rand
119 books298 followersChristopher Wright is the author of dozens of horror fiction books for children and young adults. He writes under the pseudonyms Johnathan Rand and Christopher Knight. Almost all of Wright's books (save American Chillers) take place in his home state of Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 13, 2021
Onward to Texas for American Chillers book five, a story about experimental technology meeting the tried and true machines of the past. Eleven-year-old Jake Sherwood wasn't always a country boy, but has been ever since his family moved from Houston to a rural Texas farm a few years ago. Waking before dawn isn't fun, but Jake enjoys taking care of the animals, and this July he has something special to look forward to: a visit from John Culver, Jake's best friend in Houston. John will stay at the Sherwood farm for a week, and Jake can hardly wait to take him fishing and exploring down by the creek. Jake's dad is switching to an innovative type of gasoline and needs Jake to fuel his big farming machines with it before John arrives, but after that, the week will be theirs, aside from regular farm chores. Does it get any better than a summer of freedom in Texas?
Jake and John happily reunite, though John's parents made him bring his little sister, Janey, along for the week. She might be a drag on their fun times, but Jake and John will figure something out. Jake's parents are taking a day trip to a farmer's auction and ask the boys to keep careful watch over Janey while they're gone, but there isn't much trouble she can get into on the Sherwood property...that is, until the paradigm completely changes. Every tractor in the barn roars to life simultaneously despite the ignition keys being inside the house. Jake refuses to believe the tractors are alive until they chug out of the barn on their own, with no drivers. The loud, heavy pieces of machinery come at Jake, John, and Janey aggressively, presenting a threat to their lives. The vehicles have become sentient beings overnight.
After barricading himself inside the house with John and Janey, Jake realizes the only explanation for the predatory tractors is the new fuel his father asked him to use. But how could gasoline animate metal, wires, and plastic to life? There's no time to ponder the problem; tractors and other, larger farm machines prowl the yard like vicious dogs eager to attack. They've cut the phone lines from the house, preventing the terrified kids from calling for help. Jake could dash over to Mr. and Mrs. Miller's house, but is he prepared to bet his life that he can outrun the killer vehicles? It will take more than a bit of luck to stave off their advance for even a few hours, and ultimately Jake, John, and Janey need a miracle in order to survive. Can this nightmare possibly end well for them?
Terrible Tractors of Texas is as unrefined a book as the other early American Chillers. Nonstandard usage and punctuation are rampant. If you prefer juvenile horror series that are more professional, go to R.L. Stine's Goosebumps or J.H. Reynolds's Monsterstreet, but if you're okay with some rough editing and stylistic flaws, American Chillers are entertaining. Terrible Tractors of Texas has light suspense, simple surprises, and a decent climax, while maintaining a logical narrative. It's not transcendent literature, but I liked it. Johnathan Rand's Chillers never fail to provide me a good time.
Jake and John happily reunite, though John's parents made him bring his little sister, Janey, along for the week. She might be a drag on their fun times, but Jake and John will figure something out. Jake's parents are taking a day trip to a farmer's auction and ask the boys to keep careful watch over Janey while they're gone, but there isn't much trouble she can get into on the Sherwood property...that is, until the paradigm completely changes. Every tractor in the barn roars to life simultaneously despite the ignition keys being inside the house. Jake refuses to believe the tractors are alive until they chug out of the barn on their own, with no drivers. The loud, heavy pieces of machinery come at Jake, John, and Janey aggressively, presenting a threat to their lives. The vehicles have become sentient beings overnight.
After barricading himself inside the house with John and Janey, Jake realizes the only explanation for the predatory tractors is the new fuel his father asked him to use. But how could gasoline animate metal, wires, and plastic to life? There's no time to ponder the problem; tractors and other, larger farm machines prowl the yard like vicious dogs eager to attack. They've cut the phone lines from the house, preventing the terrified kids from calling for help. Jake could dash over to Mr. and Mrs. Miller's house, but is he prepared to bet his life that he can outrun the killer vehicles? It will take more than a bit of luck to stave off their advance for even a few hours, and ultimately Jake, John, and Janey need a miracle in order to survive. Can this nightmare possibly end well for them?
Terrible Tractors of Texas is as unrefined a book as the other early American Chillers. Nonstandard usage and punctuation are rampant. If you prefer juvenile horror series that are more professional, go to R.L. Stine's Goosebumps or J.H. Reynolds's Monsterstreet, but if you're okay with some rough editing and stylistic flaws, American Chillers are entertaining. Terrible Tractors of Texas has light suspense, simple surprises, and a decent climax, while maintaining a logical narrative. It's not transcendent literature, but I liked it. Johnathan Rand's Chillers never fail to provide me a good time.
April 18, 2021
(Did this on a Sunday since I'll be swamped tomorrow)
This is an interesting series we got here. It started in around 2001 and is actually going on to this day. From what I understand, these are self published and became popular enough to have a bunch of quotes from kid readers at the start of this. The author started with Michigan Chillers, about scary/weird things in that state and its cities. Eventually he expanded to the rest of American with these. Each one is set in a different state and has an alliterative title.
The titles are great, as there's only so many scary things that start with certain letters. So he starts reaching and we get my favorite, Vicious Vacuums of Virginia. You read that right.
But anyway, this one isn't as high concept. I picked this one because...yeah duh. The protagonist is Jake, whose family has a farm. His old friend comes to visit and not even having to bring his little sister will lower their spirits. That is, until dad starts using a new experimental fule for their tractors.
And then the tractors come to life and it becomes Maximum Overdrive. That's basically the gist. The fuel is indeed the reason they come to life. It's odd but at least it's an explanation and it doesn't get too over the top with the logic. The guy who made the fuel is getting so sued though. It's very straight forward once the tractors attack and there's a whole really to it.
This isn't bad, just means there isn't a lot to really say for the bulk of it. Once it starts, it is decently exciting. There's a lot of action and it gets intense at times. Granted, this premise is not hard to pull off in that way and it doesn't exactly go the extra mile per say. But still, it was fun. They keep throwing in new obstacles and that was cool.
And an adult actually ends up being useful for once, that was a nice surprise. The parents do find out about all this only after the fact. I like the part where John goes out of his way to save his sister and they do see that she is just a little girl and excuse a couple things she does. That's about as deep as this one gets, really.
There's some mild annoyances though. For one, this is front loaded with annoying fake out cliffhangers at the start. They even involve pranks and we know how much I love those. Heck, they are weirdly rude to the sister at first even though she isn't that annoying. This is fixed later as I mentioned but still.
There's too many "little did I know" moments/cliffhangers as well .Plus, so much uneeded exclamation points and italics. It gets annoying to say the least. Not the most polished thing ever. Writing is especially simple for this, perhaps not to a super clunky extent though I guess.
Thankfully, there weren't too many super annoying "did you know this is Texas" moments like I feared. There's some Texas facts in the back of this, these seem to do that for each state so that's something.
And finally, at the end of book, they actually meet/talk to the protagonist of the next book who starts to tell their scary story. Yep, American Chillers Literary Universe! I hope the final one is the Endgame of the series. Although this one doesn't connect to the previous one, where at the end of the protags of that one likely meet Jake, which is a bit disappointing.
So overall, it's pretty basic and has some annoying things, but it did get pretty fun. Once it got started, it was decently paced and I went through it quicker than usual since there wasn't a ton of things I had to stop to think about lol. These are actually a bit longer than the standard...even once you see that it starts on page 11 and there's a bunch of blank pages that are counted for some reason. Seriously, books do that sometimes and it annoys me to no end.
But yeah, I'm not super pumped to read others if the same simple approach is taken but I wanna see how certain ideas are done, just based on the titles. So we may come to back to this series eventually, not as interested as with others though.
I have no way to close this so...bye.
This is an interesting series we got here. It started in around 2001 and is actually going on to this day. From what I understand, these are self published and became popular enough to have a bunch of quotes from kid readers at the start of this. The author started with Michigan Chillers, about scary/weird things in that state and its cities. Eventually he expanded to the rest of American with these. Each one is set in a different state and has an alliterative title.
The titles are great, as there's only so many scary things that start with certain letters. So he starts reaching and we get my favorite, Vicious Vacuums of Virginia. You read that right.
But anyway, this one isn't as high concept. I picked this one because...yeah duh. The protagonist is Jake, whose family has a farm. His old friend comes to visit and not even having to bring his little sister will lower their spirits. That is, until dad starts using a new experimental fule for their tractors.
And then the tractors come to life and it becomes Maximum Overdrive. That's basically the gist. The fuel is indeed the reason they come to life. It's odd but at least it's an explanation and it doesn't get too over the top with the logic. The guy who made the fuel is getting so sued though. It's very straight forward once the tractors attack and there's a whole really to it.
This isn't bad, just means there isn't a lot to really say for the bulk of it. Once it starts, it is decently exciting. There's a lot of action and it gets intense at times. Granted, this premise is not hard to pull off in that way and it doesn't exactly go the extra mile per say. But still, it was fun. They keep throwing in new obstacles and that was cool.
And an adult actually ends up being useful for once, that was a nice surprise. The parents do find out about all this only after the fact. I like the part where John goes out of his way to save his sister and they do see that she is just a little girl and excuse a couple things she does. That's about as deep as this one gets, really.
There's some mild annoyances though. For one, this is front loaded with annoying fake out cliffhangers at the start. They even involve pranks and we know how much I love those. Heck, they are weirdly rude to the sister at first even though she isn't that annoying. This is fixed later as I mentioned but still.
There's too many "little did I know" moments/cliffhangers as well .Plus, so much uneeded exclamation points and italics. It gets annoying to say the least. Not the most polished thing ever. Writing is especially simple for this, perhaps not to a super clunky extent though I guess.
Thankfully, there weren't too many super annoying "did you know this is Texas" moments like I feared. There's some Texas facts in the back of this, these seem to do that for each state so that's something.
And finally, at the end of book, they actually meet/talk to the protagonist of the next book who starts to tell their scary story. Yep, American Chillers Literary Universe! I hope the final one is the Endgame of the series. Although this one doesn't connect to the previous one, where at the end of the protags of that one likely meet Jake, which is a bit disappointing.
So overall, it's pretty basic and has some annoying things, but it did get pretty fun. Once it got started, it was decently paced and I went through it quicker than usual since there wasn't a ton of things I had to stop to think about lol. These are actually a bit longer than the standard...even once you see that it starts on page 11 and there's a bunch of blank pages that are counted for some reason. Seriously, books do that sometimes and it annoys me to no end.
But yeah, I'm not super pumped to read others if the same simple approach is taken but I wanna see how certain ideas are done, just based on the titles. So we may come to back to this series eventually, not as interested as with others though.
I have no way to close this so...bye.
August 19, 2015
The book I read was the Terrible Tractors of Texas. It is written by Johnathan Rand. The genre is fantasy because tractors can't come to life and try to kill the people of Texas. The setting is Texas and the character are jhon and Abby.What causes this is toxic waste the put in the tractors thinking it was fuel. But that brought them to life. I rated this book a 5 star because this was my first of the series.
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September 16, 2021I imagined the main character of this book to be fat, like me. That's what I love about reading. You get to use your vivid imagination. But I don't think the author wants to promote morbid obesity, especially in children.
What I really want to talk about is how I handle my weight. So instead of going to the gym and working out (because that takes effort), you know what I did?
I walked to the end up my driveway as a fat teenage guy was strolling down the street, then I threw my hands over my bowl full of jelly and shouted, "I feel fat!" in a southern accent.
He was the first person I did that to. Now I do it to everyone and everywhere. At school during recess, I will tell "I feel fat!" Then run and crash into a fence and try to bring it down. The school has already had to replace it once.
All the fence crashing helped get my weight down and people are shocked, because they didn't realize it was my plan all along. I didn't have to pay for a gym membership, but the school did have to pay for a new fence. Tough shit, they can afford it.
What I really want to talk about is how I handle my weight. So instead of going to the gym and working out (because that takes effort), you know what I did?
I walked to the end up my driveway as a fat teenage guy was strolling down the street, then I threw my hands over my bowl full of jelly and shouted, "I feel fat!" in a southern accent.
He was the first person I did that to. Now I do it to everyone and everywhere. At school during recess, I will tell "I feel fat!" Then run and crash into a fence and try to bring it down. The school has already had to replace it once.
All the fence crashing helped get my weight down and people are shocked, because they didn't realize it was my plan all along. I didn't have to pay for a gym membership, but the school did have to pay for a new fence. Tough shit, they can afford it.
May 7, 2024
When I read books like this I like to imagine what I would had thought if I read them in the year it was released. I would had been 11 in 02, so the target audience. I think I would had liked it as I read it but soon as I started reading another book I'd likely forget about it.
Adult me however thought it was a bit of a chore to read. Truth be told I found myself skimming rather than properly reading.
Adult me however thought it was a bit of a chore to read. Truth be told I found myself skimming rather than properly reading.
December 17, 2020
One of the most weirdest things ever. ALIVE MASINES?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?! Now, i am not saying that the book is bad, it is actually one of my favs, but if you are in it, u be as terified as a Bear would from a skunk!
August 31, 2023
This one was such a let down and I didn’t even have expectations. I’m constantly impressed by how bland the writing is. I’ve read a similar story before and it was a million times better (yes, a kids book as well)
December 8, 2021
it about a boys who think that the tracter are comeing to life one day his parnet levae to go to the airort and th eboy is home alone he see the tracter come to life
January 11, 2026
I loved this book when I was little and recently bought it to reread. It’s not as good as it was when I was 7, but I still enjoyed the nostalgia from reading it.
September 6, 2010
There are some books you read just because you know your students are going to read them and you want to know what's in them. This is that book. Part of the
American Thrillers
series, this one is set in Texas (each book is set in a different state). Kids who love
Goosebumps
will go for these books. It will appeal to those who love hyperbole, italics, and exclamation points! especially if one likes all three together. Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger and the author constantly reminds the reader that, as horror-filled as the story has been so far, it will get worse. These books are for those who like horror and action and don't want to deal with the complications of character development.
October 19, 2016
I think this book was overall great. The story was great but didn't make sense. They Could've have just explained how the tractors came alive instead of a special fluid that made no sense. I'm not going to bash a book form not making sense but in this instance with the tractors doesn't make sense. The book also didn't have much character development and used cliches like the parents don't notice monsters and stuff but the book was still OK because i felt like the charaiters make some real life decision i would make.
Read
March 10, 2011This is too good, I want you guys to read this and find out what happens. Jake and his friend john is spending their time on a farm that Jake's parents rented. But Jake and John are finding out about something unusual about those tractors. Why is the tractors breaking the barn, why are they moving, no HOW are they moving with no one in there? Will jake and John find a way to end this madness with the tractors? Find out and Read, Terrible Tractors of Texas, by Jonathan Rand.
February 18, 2011
Everywhere they go there are tractors. How can they escape? All the tractors have turned evil. What will happen? Find out in Terrible Tractors of Texas. My favorite part is when Tony flips All the tractors because He and his friend John and his little sister keep getting cornered. This is a page turner.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2015
"Terrible Tractors of Texas" by Johnathan Rand is a very cool book. Jake and his friend John are taking some days of fun when the decide to try some experimental fuel in the tractors. There is a catch though. The fuel causes the tractors to come alive. Jake and john need to act fast and come up with a plan to stop them before these tractors destroy everything. Can the do it?
September 18, 2010
Love John
May 22, 2012
Terrible Tractors of Texas was a great book!!!! It was funny,full of action and scary at times!!!!
June 6, 2013
Great thriller love this book!
Read
November 15, 2013the book was a very cool and creepy book it was interesting because the tractors came to life.
August 24, 2015
This book is what got me started on this series.
September 16, 2015
awsome book i dont uslaly like books im more of a sport kid but best book i ever read
January 15, 2016
Interesting. The reader is never bored since the plot moves around a lot and keeps moving. Very creative.
Read
April 10, 2017I like this book it was certainly five stars I liked how adventurous it was.
Read
October 20, 2008I liked it read sunday
October 26, 2012
A great book very actionitive.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews