Judy Silverman (Children's Literature)
Zindel knows how to capture a young man's life and thoughts to perfection. Loch is Loch Ness, but it's also Luke Perkins' nickname. When Luke was six, he had an encounter with a beast at Loch Ness, but no one believed him, and by now, ten years later, the whole episode seems like a piece of childish imagining. Since then, his sister Zaidee has been born, and his mother has died. And now the family is in Vermont, where his father has joined an expedition to search for wildlife in a mountain lake. There's a mild romance, Loch's relationship with his sister and the relationship of the two kids with their father are perfect, and the blood-and-guts (literally) search for monsters is just right. The intended audience is kids in grades 6-12, but sixth graders might never go swimming again and twelfth graders might think the romance too tame. But it's a good read. 1995, HarperCollins and Hyperion Books, $15.00, $14.89 and $4.95. Ages 12 to 18.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1994)
The Loch Ness Monster lives in this latest adventure by award-winning author Zindel (The Pigman and Me, 1992, etc.). The beast resides in small Lake Alban in Vermont with his wife and little monsters, trapped there by a man-made salmon grid that blocks the lake's opening back to the deep waters of Lake Champlain. The monster is no mythical creature here but a plesiosaur -- a prehistoric cetacean that has survived until the present. Loch, a 15-year-old so nicknamed because he claimed to have seen the Loch Ness Monster ("Nessie") ten years earlier in Scotland, lives with his father, Dr. Sam Perkins, and his younger sister, Zaidee, near the lake. Dr. Sam, a marine biologist, works for Anthony Cavenger, who spends fortunes seeking out monsters like Big Foot and Nessie. After reported sightings at Lake Alban, Cavenger and his pseudoscientific, paramilitary organization go to Vermont to investigate. They find the plesiosaurs -- who have not devolved like the once fierce sturgeon, as an unlucky photographer and a local yokel discover the hard way. Ruthless Cavenger intends to take the animals alive, dead, or blown to bits. But Loch, Zaidee, and Cavenger's teenage daughter, Sarah, have discovered and befriended a young plesiosaur. They realize that the plesiosaurs are highly intelligent and sensitive creatures, and that it is up to them to save the magnificent beasts. Fast, furious, and masterful. 1994, HarperCollins, $15.00; PLB $14.89. Starred Review. © 1994 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Anne Sherrill (The ALAN Review, Fall 1995 (Vol. 23, No. 1))
Fifteen-year-old Loch embarks on high adventure as he and his sister Zaidee determine to save prehistoric sea monsters from the well-equipped army of a greedy publisher named Cavenger, who is determined to harvest one of the creatures. When threatened, these creatures are lethal, as three deaths prove. However, Loch and Zaidee earn the trust of a young plesiosaur and communicate with it. They learn that the monster cries and feels pain just as humans do. Two characters face moral decisions. Dr. Sam, a marine scientist and the widowed father of Loch and Zaidee, must decide whether to use his knowledge to set the monsters free. Loch must maintain his sense of fairness by risking his life to rescue the beasts from senseless slaughter. The early adolescent will enjoy the relentless excitement as well as learn about salmon grids, sea life, scuba diving, and human selfishness. 1994, HarperCollins, 210 pp., $15.00. Ages 12 up.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 1994 (Vol. 48, No. 3))
Young Luke Perkins is nicknamed "Loch" after he sees the famed monster in Scotland; ten years later, fifteen-year-old Loch is saddened by the recent death of his mother and the subsequent decline of his scientist father. Dr. Sam seems to be completely cowed by his employer, Mr. Cavenger, a tabloid publisher who sends Loch's father on quests for proof about mythological beings such as Sasquatch and Nessie, and who has decided to investigate a small Vermont lake for eerie underwater inhabitants. It turns out to have them in droves-primeval yet evolved marine creatures (the book labels them plesiosaurs) who fight back savagely and gorily against the heartless humans who seek to destroy and exploit them. Loch and his sister, Zaidee, discover a softer side to the creatures, however, when they befriend a stranded young one whom they call "Wee Beastie"; with the help of Cavenger's daughter, Sarah, they protect Wee Beastie from the money-grubbing publisher and his henchmen until the not-so-wee beasties slay their foes and make it back to their original, bigger habitat. This is sort of a cross between ET and Jaws-the kids desperately attempt to protect the misunderstood against the arrogant, but the bad guys bite the dust with great drama ("Erdon's last conscious thought was the realization that he was being chewed in half"), leaving grisly bits of people floating about the lake. The characters are pretty stock, the sentimental undertones rather unsubtle ("We're a family again, aren't we?" asks Zaidee as she gazes up at her re-empowered father after the great boss-killing denouement), and nobody seems much worried about what will happen to the residents of the bigger lake to which the creatures flee. Still, it's a good, rip-roaring, kids-know-best adventure that would make a terrific beach paperback and has "reluctant reader" written all over it. Ad--Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. Reviewed from galleys (c) Copyright 1994, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1994, HarperCollins, [192p], $14.89 and $15.00. Grades 6-9.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1994)
Loch, so nicknamed because he is sure he once encountered the Loch Ness monster, accompanies his father on an expedition to discover prehistoric creatures in a New England lake. Loch, his crush, and his younger sister meet the monsters and ultimately save them from destruction. What with the gory deaths, sympathetic monsters, and stock characters, there is little to redeem the fast-paced adventure. Category: Fiction. 1994, HarperCollins, 211pp.. Ages 14 to 18. Rating: 4: Recommended, with minor flaws.