Half Term Adventure
A Classic Children's Novel in eBook format by Cyril J Wood
Overview
This novel is targeted at eight to thirteen year old children. It aims to stimulate their imagination and conjure up mental images of a holiday adventure as well as help to give them a sense of value and not to be blinded by the image of people who are obviously well off, but not necessarily as honest as the rest of us.
The story is about two children who go to visit their aunt and cousin for a week’s holiday at the half term break in the summer term. Their respective fathers (who are brothers) have gone on a fishing trip to the Lake District leaving their wives and the children at a cottage located in a village that lies on the Cumbrian Coast. The cottage is owned by the cousin’s family and is their home.
The location is a small, fictitious village in a bay that is quite isolated except for a couple of minor roads, a railway station served by a preserved steam railway and the sea.
They have various adventures during the first part of the week including - a visit to Sellafield nuclear power station (during which, they learn of two escaped convicts from a nearby prison), a trip on the railway where they befriend the railway officials, visit a cave in the base of some cliffs, a boat trip to the island in the bay, a walk along the railway line (where they get into trouble from a railway official), go swimming in a local river, have picnics in the Bluebell Woods and go on bicycle rides around the surrounding area.
A rich businessman lives in the district and drives around in an Aston Martin sports car that the children admire. They see him in the village talking to some undesirable local men and a bit later in the story, they observe him in suspicious circumstances overseeing the unloading of some rigid inflatable boats with powerful outboard motors from a large van in a disused quarry where they were having a picnic lunch and swim in a nearby river.
Later on in the week, these boats rendezvous with a ship anchored in the bay and return to land with what the children think is cocaine or some other drug. The truck is disabled whilst two of the children cycle off to bring the local police to apprehend the criminals. Due to the policeman’s car being disabled by a contrived accident with the one of the Aston Martin owner’s sidekicks. The policeman has to arrive at the quarry by steam train and delay the criminals until the police reinforcements arrive by helicopter.
At the story’s conclusion, the children are rewarded for delaying the criminals, foiling their drug smuggling activities and helping to recapture two escaped convicts.
About "Half-Term Adventure"
As a child I was an avid reader. Two of my favourite books were "The Treasure Hunters" by Enid Blyton and "The Beresfords in Tarndale" by Peter Lethbridge as well as the usual "Famous Five" stories and Willard Price's "Adventure" series of books. Many of the stories that I read lacked important details or were written in a style that "talked down" to the reader. I have tried not to fall into these traps and have (hopefully) produced a story that is enjoyable and can be related to by today's young readers (and sometimes by adults).
The dust jacket illustration of Enid Blyton's "The Treasure Hunters" and...
..."The Beresfords in Tarndale"... two of my favourite childhood books
"Half-Term Adventure" aims to stimulate the reader's imagination and conjure up mental images of a holiday adventure. The main characters and the plot of the story are fictitious but many of the sub-plots and happenings are based on real life experiences. Some of the characters are based on real people whose names have been changed to protect their anonymity and most of the locations in the book are based on actual places that I have visited.
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Updated - 10-12-13