Andrew Daddo is best known as a TV star but he is also building quite a reputation as a writer of cheeky and fun kids books.

Creepy Cool is his fourth and tries hard to be a horror story.  But the fun keeps hijacking the story as hero Angus has his motorbike eaten by a haunted billabong.  If that wasn’t bad enough, his sister and her friend Frances want to use him to practise their kissing, which he finds even more frightening!

Hodder’s Hotshots series is a great collection of easy to read Australian stories for middle and upper primary readers and Creepy Cool fits this bill perfectly.  It is told by Angus as he desperately tries to work out what is happening around him, mainly because he keeps doing what he has been warned not to.

It starts off badly for him –

“Yuk!” I said, “I don’t what to kiss you.”
“And I don’t want you to kiss me. I want James Beilby to kiss me. But when he does, I want to be ready. Okay!”

and gets worse.  The drought-dried mud flat of Creepy Cool is an irresistible (and forbidden) motocross track until the bike gets bogged.  When the bike disappears, he is in big trouble.

This is a fast paced and fun story that carries just a hint of a message about listening to warnings.  And it proves that Andrew Daddo is more than just a pretty TV face!

Review by David Beagley

© 2002 David Beagley