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Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird
Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird: Hell Hound Curse
To make some extra money for Feral Zoo, Sammy, Red and Donny decide to promote their cryptozoology business - investigating animals that don't exist. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything! Hired to check out sightings of a ghost dog, the friends uncover the terrifying legend of the Hell Hound. Anyone who is seen by this terrible beast is struck with a death curse. So when Sammy's best friend Mark runs into the deadly dog, Sammy knows he doesn't have long to figure out how to save him!
Everything! Hired to check out sightings of a ghost dog, the friends uncover the terrifying legend of the Hell Hound. Anyone who is seen by this terrible beast is struck with a death curse. So when Sammy's best friend Mark runs into the deadly dog, Sammy knows he doesn't have long to figure out how to save him!
- GenresFantasy
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2013
About the author
Eleanor Hawken
20 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 28, 2021
The funny thing is, is that I read the last book of the series first by accident, but still continued anyway since I'd enjoyed it that much.
I can't remember the details of this series because the last time I'd read it was five years ago back when I was fourteen.
I can't remember the details of this series because the last time I'd read it was five years ago back when I was fourteen.
June 23, 2017
Mildly amusing/entertaining book for twelve-year-olds.
July 27, 2013
Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird: Hell Hound Curse is the first book in this series that I've read, but I'll definitely be going back and getting the first two. It made me laugh all the way through and is weird and wonderful - just how I like my children's fiction!
In this third instalment, Sammy, a cryptozoologist extraordinaire, discovers that his friend Mark has been cursed by a hell hound and it must be found and defeated immediately. With the help of his friends Donny and Red, a Mongolian death worm and a rather grumpy troll, Sammy sets out to get rid of the hell hound and cure Mark once and for all.
Hell Hound Curse is a mad story with lots of laughs and fantastic illustrations by John Kelly - in all honesty, I've never seen a Mongolian death worm look so friendly! It's one of those fun children's books that is completely fantastical but one you wish could be real. I'd love to visit the Feral Zoo and see all these cool creatures. I'm looking forward to catching up with this series and I hope the first two books are as good as this one!
In this third instalment, Sammy, a cryptozoologist extraordinaire, discovers that his friend Mark has been cursed by a hell hound and it must be found and defeated immediately. With the help of his friends Donny and Red, a Mongolian death worm and a rather grumpy troll, Sammy sets out to get rid of the hell hound and cure Mark once and for all.
Hell Hound Curse is a mad story with lots of laughs and fantastic illustrations by John Kelly - in all honesty, I've never seen a Mongolian death worm look so friendly! It's one of those fun children's books that is completely fantastical but one you wish could be real. I'd love to visit the Feral Zoo and see all these cool creatures. I'm looking forward to catching up with this series and I hope the first two books are as good as this one!
March 29, 2015
To make some extra money for Feral Zoo, Sammy, Red and Donny decide to promote their Cryptozoology business - investigating animals that don't exist. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything! Hired to check out sightings of a ghost dog, the friends uncover the terrifying legend of the Hell Hound. Anyone who is seen by this terrible beast is struck with a death curse. So when Sammy's best friend Mark runs into the deadly dog, Sammy knows he doesn't have long to figure out how to save him!
This is the third book in the series, and now I'm looking out for book 4. There's something very endearing about Sammy Feral. I think part of it is his use of strange similies. He certainly has a way with words. Another fun-packed adventure that children will love, and adults can appreciate.
Everything! Hired to check out sightings of a ghost dog, the friends uncover the terrifying legend of the Hell Hound. Anyone who is seen by this terrible beast is struck with a death curse. So when Sammy's best friend Mark runs into the deadly dog, Sammy knows he doesn't have long to figure out how to save him!
This is the third book in the series, and now I'm looking out for book 4. There's something very endearing about Sammy Feral. I think part of it is his use of strange similies. He certainly has a way with words. Another fun-packed adventure that children will love, and adults can appreciate.
June 19, 2015
It was an awesome book! I guarantee you would love it, if you're a fantasy lover. The characters were well described that I can almost imagine what they would sound like and act like. The story was also well written, but it's not like other fantasy books which uses words that are so literature-y, the story was written with easily understandable words.
I really love every friendship part of it. Especially when Sammy tried sacrificing himself towards every death that his best friend was going to end up in. When his crypto friends told him that if he kept dodging the deaths from his best friend, the Hell Hound curse would fall on him. But Sammy was like; "I don't care if the curse falls on me, all I care is that my friend is save from the dog's curse."
I really love every friendship part of it. Especially when Sammy tried sacrificing himself towards every death that his best friend was going to end up in. When his crypto friends told him that if he kept dodging the deaths from his best friend, the Hell Hound curse would fall on him. But Sammy was like; "I don't care if the curse falls on me, all I care is that my friend is save from the dog's curse."
November 10, 2013
A whole lotta fun!!! Great adventures, great fun characters and lots of action. A must read for grade 4 and up. This book was the 3rd in a series, so you must read the first book to understand the Feral Family. Happy Reading :)
Want to Read
June 6, 2017the book was really good the scaring part needed something
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews