By: Cristy Burne, Siku (Illustrator)

Paperback

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Miku is going to School Camp in the forest, with her friend Cait and the rest of her class. It should be fun. But Miku has premonitions of danger, and when Oscar goes down with a festering rash, and a rushing wind blows out the bonfire she's sure something bad is going on. Then Alex finds the frog-like Filth-Licker in the boys' toilets, and all at once Miku, Cait and Alex are on a secret mission to overcome the vengeful Shape-Shifters or Super Demons before it's too late. Later that night, with Alex kidnapped by a pyromaniac fox, and Cait possessed by some angry sickle weasels, it's up to Miku and the Filth-Licker to save them all from disaster.

About the Author

Cristy Burne has joint New Zealand and Australian citizenship, has traveled widely and lived for several years in Japan as a teacher and editor. It was during this time that she became fascinated with Japanese folklore and the supernatural yokai - demons - which are very much a part of Japanese culture, but little known outside Japan. She won the Voices on the Coast Youth Literature Award for emerging writers, in Queensland, Australia, but Takeshita Demons was her first published book. Burne and her family live in Perth, Australia.

About the Illustrator

Siku is a well-known illustrator for comic books and graphic novels, working for the major companies in the field, including 2000AD magazine and Marvel Comics. His best-known book is The Manga Bible. Siku lives and works in London and Essex.

Cristy's knowledge of Japanese folklore and the supernatural shine through and this is a compulsive read. Parents in Touch Lively with some suspense. Ibby Link Brilliant manga-type illustrations by Siku complement the text and there is also a useful glossary giving information about the many demons that make an appearance in the book. This is basically a fantasy adventure story with the fascinating addition of Japanese folk-lore: it is moderately scary and fast-moving and will definitely appeal to confident readers in junior school and the lower years in secondary school. School Librarian

Chapter 1

“Cait, are you still there?” I could hear breathing on the other end of the phone, but Cait’s voice had disappeared, cut off halfway through a sentence. “Hello?” It was dark outside, late on the night before school camp, and I had a bad feeling in my gut that was cutting like knives. I was supposed to be packing shirts and shoes and lucky charms to take to camp, but I hadn’t even opened my case.

The phone crackled. “Sorry,” Cait whispered. “I had to go quiet. I’m supposed to be in bed. Dad’ll freak if he finds me up this late.” So she was still there. Still OK. Relief prickled down my arms.

“What’s up?” she asked. “Why are you calling so late?”

I swallowed. “It’s about camp,” I began. “I’ve got this feeling...”

Cait didn’t hesitate. “I know,” she said. “Me too.”

I grinned despite the churning in my belly. Of course Cait would understand. She’d been with me through everything, helping me break into our school and rescue my brother, making friends with a half-dragon water-woman, even standing up to Mrs Okuda after she’d become a child-eating nukekubi demon. Since the night we’d met the demons, Cait and I had been virtually inseparable. Unlike Mrs Okuda and her head.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” Cait continued. “About camp. I think we’re going to need a few extra things….”

I listened, on the edge of my bed.

“But it’s hard to know,” she said. “For a start, I think I’ll take two pairs, then I can wear one at dinner or whatever, and have the other if Mr Lloyd makes us go hiking. Are you taking two? Or maybe we should go for three?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

The phone went silent. “Jeans,” Cait said. “What are you talking about?”

“Demons.” I hissed the word into the phone, as if a demon might be listening outside my door that very second. “At camp.”

The phone stayed silent. “Cait?” What was going on over there? Maybe she wasn’t safe after all….

But then Cait’s voice came rattling into my ear. She sounded tired. “Demons again, Miku? I thought you’d finished with that.”

“But...” “Mrs Okuda has gone,” she said. “Mr Lloyd is back. You’ve got to give all this demon stuff a rest. We’re off to camp tomorrow. No spooks or flying heads there.”

“But we’ll be all alone out there.” School camp in the countryside. Cabins without locks. Woods on three sides and a hungry river out the back. Plus a long, lonely walk to the toilets every night. My guts twisted like snakes. “Anything could find us.”

Cait snorted. “You worry too much. Focus on the good stuff. A whole week without homework.”

“But what about that smell?” I sniffed, but I couldn’t smell it now, which was a pleasant change.

At school, in the library, on the bus. We’d been smelling it everywhere, something animal and musty, like a cross between wet dog and monkey droppings.

“Look…” There was a sigh and some shuffling.

“I’ve gotta pack. Can we talk tomorrow?”

Tomorrow wouldn’t help the feeling in my gut tonight, but perhaps Cait was right. Maybe we would be safe at camp. Maybe things would get better if we were further from home and away from our school, where everything had started. Still I delayed, feeling the hot phone burn into my ear. But I couldn’t wait for ever. “OK. Sure. Tomorrow would be good.” “Great. So two pairs?”

I sighed. “Yeah. Two’s probably enough.”

So much for inseparable. Cait was now quick to change the subject if I wanted to talk supernatural spirits. Back when the nukekubi had invaded our school, Cait had believed me, defended me, even risked her neck for me. But maybe demons just weren’t her thing any more. I was beginning to feel as if there was a forest between us, and it was growing.

That night I tried to stay busy, putting things in my case and taking them out again. Eventually,

after everything was packed for the fiftieth time, I went to bed. I lay there for ages, but I didn’t sleep. The sick feeling in my stomach grew steadily worse, and from inside the walls of my room I could hear the rise and fall of something wailing. My bag was packed. The camp bus would leave in just a few hours. But something, somewhere, had already begun.

ISBN: 9781847801364
ISBN-10: 1847801366
Audience: Children
For Ages: 8 - 10 years old
For Grades: 4 - 6
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 208
Published: 27th March 2012
Dimensions (cm): 19.8 x 12.9  x 1.5
Weight (kg): 0.159