5. Danger! Danger!

Many of my stories feature characters in very dangerous situations or doing very dangerous things. Often they find themselves doing very dangerous things in very dangerous situations, like the little boy trapped in the burning apartment in The 26-Storey Treehouse.

The 26-Storey Treehouse

Sometimes imaginary danger can be just as scary as actual danger. In this passage from Treasure Fever!, Jack Japes imagines a reason why their teacher is running late.

‘What if she’s been in an accident?’ said Newton.

‘I don’t think that’s likely,’ said Jenny. ‘You know how careful Mrs Chalkboard is.’

‘Yes, but careful people can still be involved in accidents,’ said Fiona. ‘That’s why they are called accidents. Something may have happened to the bus.’

Newton’s face was getting whiter and whiter, if that was even possible.

‘Yeah,’ said Jack, taking up where Fiona left off. ‘There might have been an oil spill on the road and the bus skidded and went over a cliff … into shark-infested water … and the sharks got into the bus and all the passengers got eaten alive … and all that was left was their skeletons. Then imagine if Mrs Chalkboard’s skeleton climbed back up the cliff and hitched a ride to school and then came in the classroom and—’

‘JACK!’ said Jenny, ‘for goodness’ sake, STOP IT! You’re scaring Newton to death! I’m sure Mrs Chalkboard is fine!’

 

Jack Japes terrorises poor Newton Hooton with his worst case scenario about why their teacher is late (Treasure Fever!).

Of course, no road in real life could be as dangerous as The Very Bad Road in The Very Bad Book …

The Very Bad Book

In the Just series, Andy constantly finds himself in extremely dangerous situations. Some of these include:

• Riding in a pram down a steep hill (‘Runaway pram’, Just Stupid!)

• Flying high above the ground attached to helium balloons (‘A crazy … idea’, Just Crazy!)

• Being buried alive (‘Playing dead’, Just Tricking!)

• Jumping from a motorbike onto a moving car (‘Are we there yet?’, Just Annoying!)

• Helping to steer a car while Danny is asleep at the wheel (‘Sleepover of doom’, Just Doomed!)

• Being chased around the bath by two mysterious brown blobs (‘Two brown blobs’, Just Disgusting!)

• Being trapped in a shower that is filling up with water (‘In the shower with Andy’, Just Annoying!)

• Flying off a clothesline at high speed (‘Swinging on the clothesline’, Just Annoying!)

• Being chased by angry nude people (‘Just nude!’, Just Doomed!)

 

It seems like the more dangerous the situation, the more readers love it. I guess stories allow us to have the thrill of experiencing dangerous situations without the risk of actual injury.

TRY THIS

Bad Road cartoon

Draw your own bad road cartoon.

Try to think of all the things you are most scared of and see if you can include these as hazards along the way.

The structure of these cartoons is very simple—one road sign and one bad thing happening per frame. If you need ideas, feel free to help yourself to some from the list below.

• Falling rocks, falling zombies, falling elephants, exploding elephants

• Slippery when wet, explosive when wet

• Naked people ahead

• Micro sleeps can kill, micro sheep can kill

• Beware invisible cows

… OR THIS

Why Mrs Chalkboard is late

Write a letter of apology from Mrs Chalkboard—or, even better, your own teacher—to the principal explaining why you were late for class. You can use the scenario from the Treasure Fever! extract or you can come up with your own exciting, ridiculously dangerous reasons.