Dark wind blowing - Jackie French

A boy is pushed too far by his peers, resulting in dramatic and life-threatening consequences as he threatens to release a deadly virus into his school

Mike is just like any other normal kid. He lives in a small town where nothing unusual happens. His next door neighbour is Lance Loosley, known as Loser at school, a bit of a weirdo, always boasting, a kid no one wants to be friends with. One day Lance is pushed too far by his peers and this time the humiliation and teasing is too much. Lance seeks revenge. He has in his possession a test-tube filled with brown powder that he claims is a deadly virus. No one believes him until the test-tube gets smashed in the classroom. First the teacher starts having seizures, then the pupils. Lance disappears. The school is put into quarantine and isolated. No one goes in. No one is allowed out, except perhaps in a body bag. Mike feels he has to do something, and manages to escape and sets out to find Lance. He discovers that the brown powder is not a deadly virus. The reason for the illness is rat poison which Lance had tipped his classmates' and teachers' pencils in, the end some people like to chew or suck. Mike has saved the day, but not without personal cost to himself as he reflects on who is really to blame. 'But I should have been kind to him. I should have been honest with him. I shouldn't have laughed behind his back.'

A chilling and thought-provoking novel about the devastating effects of an unhappy childhood, peer-group pressure and the desperate measures taken to be liked. An immensely exciting novel and a worthy follow up to Hitler's Daughter, by the same author.