Seventeen-year-old Stephen has kept the “Beast” alive, despite the Eng lish weather, in a wire cage at the reservoir near his foster home with the Reynolds family. But “his boy” is now unmanageable. When he enlists the help of his deadbeat father, the killer crocodile escapes. Through Stephen’s first-person narrative, a gripping story is told of how recapturing his former pet nearly costs him his life. Stephen also tells about his family relationships: the family that let Stephen down; his love for his dead brother; and his new relationship with sixteen-year-old teenager Carol Reynolds, who, surpris ingly, becomes his ally. 2007 Carnegie Medal Shortlist, 2007 Branford Boase Award Shortlist. hc

Originally published by Scholastic Great Britain, in 2006.