Fifteen-year-old Loch and his younger sister join their father on a scientific expedition searching for enormous prehistoric creatures sighted in a Vermont lake, but soon discover that the expedition's leaders aren't interested in preserving the creatures. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

With its prehistoric quarry and gore-spattered action (``Erdon's last conscious thought was the realization that he was being chewed in half''), Zindel's latest calls to mind a waterlogged version of Jurassic Park. For years, Loch and his spunky younger sister Zaidee have trailed after Dr. Sam, their renowned marine biologist father, as he travels the world searching for behemoths like Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster. Dr. Sam's boss is the wealthy and inexplicably evil Anthony Cavenger, the father of Loch's love interest Sarah, a spoiled but good-hearted clotheshorse saddled with the novel's most inane lines. Exploring a remote Vermont lake, Cavenger and his entourage have a brief but bloody encounter with what seems to be a Plesiosaurus, a fanged cousin of ``Nessie.'' The next day, Loch and his sister meet up with Wee Beastie, a playful infant Plesiosaurus that endears itself to the youngsters with its ``otherworldly singing.'' Determined to protect Wee Beastie and its fearsome kin, Loch, Zaidee and Sarah embark upon a muddled rescue plan that has the dubious virtue of bringing about the slaughter of nearly all the bad guys. The insight and wit of Zindel's best work are conspicuously absent. Ages 12-up. Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 6-9--Zindel draws on his scientific background in this story of Luke Perkins, 15, nicknamed ``Loch'' after claiming to see a lake monster as a little boy. He and his younger sister, Zaidee, join their oceanographer father on an expedition searching for enormous prehistoric creatures sighted in Lake Alban in Vermont. Their leader, Cavenger, is a ruthless despot who would just as soon annihilate as preserve the Plesiosaurs, water beasts thought to be extinct for over 10 million years. The siblings and Cavenger's daughter befriend Wee Beastie and help it and its family escape to safety; Dr. Perkins, who has been diminished in his own and his childrens' eyes by selling out his ideals in his need for money, redeems himself. The book is really about what makes a family, whether human or creature, as Loch and Zaidee adjust to their mother's death and help their father regain his self-respect. The gruesome attacks by Pleisosaurs on some humans are gory and grisly enough to satisfy even the blood-thirstiest of middle schoolers. Zindel's style capably blends descriptive, figurative language with YA dialogue.Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 7-10. Readers who enjoy gory horror stories will appreciate Zindel's latest, in which lovable (though human-eating) creatures trapped in a Vermont lake become prey for a ruthless man. Sixteen-year-old Loch and his sister Zaidee accompany their father, a marine scientist, on a job for Mr. Cavenger, who finances scientific expeditions. Loch expects their search for modern-day plesiosaurs to be a washout. Instead, creatures do appear, and they're vicious when annoyed. Even so, Loch, Zaidee, and Cavenger's daughter manage to befriend one of them, and when they discover that Cavenger intends to kill the beasts, they are horrified. The climax is dramatic, and the horror elements of the story are successful. As a story about kids and their fathers, however, the book doesn't work: Cavenger is despicable, and Loch's father is simply a submissive wimp. (Reviewed November 15, 1994)0060245425Chris Sherman From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.