Amazon The Wings of Leo Spencer Jerome Parisse Gleebooks Category:  Fantasy Publisher: Sid Harta Publishers ISBN-10:  1921642149 Type: Fiction Pages: 276 Copyright: Jan 1, 2010 ISBN-13: 9781921642142 How do you protect your family and your best friend from a terrible fate if you're dead and you can make no impression on the material world? Fourteen year old Leo has found the most amazing present for his mum’s birthday. Unfortunately, someone has decided that he will not live to see it... As he dies, Leo finds himself facing a terrifying choice, one that will impact his life – or his death – forever. But who wanted him dead in the first place? And why is he being targeted by an evil force? Even Geraldine - dead and loving every minute of it - has no clue as to what's happening. Leo's search for the truth takes him to the most astonishing places, and presents him with a challenge even greater than dying: to protect his family and his best friend from a terrible fate…   Excerpt Leo Spencer was fourteen years two months and a few days old when it happened. It happened during the night, at 4.15 am precisely. But Leo was fast asleep at the time, dreaming he was a Black-footed Albatross heading towards the Bering Sea after the breeding season, so he didn’t realise things had changed until he woke up. In fact, he didn’t realise it himself. It was his mother who told him. It may otherwise have taken him a long time - days, maybe weeks - before he’d realise his life had changed forever. To make things worse, it also happened on his mum’s birthday. It had rained all afternoon the day before, and the temperature had dropped. The wind was howling through the trees under a roof of heavy clouds. Leo and Peter were on their way to surf after school. Both boys shared a passion for surfing, and every day after class they went to the beach to spend an hour fighting the waves of Lemon Bay. Peter lived with his parents on the other side of the bay, less than ten minutes walking distance from Leo’s place. Both houses were isolated from the town, which had been built away from the ocean in an area protected from the strong winter gusts. Leo’s house stood on top of a small hill and overlooked the bay. The vegetation around it was low and scrubby, and a meandering path led to the beach. You could see the top of Leo’s house from Peter’s, but only if you knew that it was there; otherwise, it looked like shapeless rocks among the scrub. ‘I got her the book yesterday,’ Leo said, clutching his surfboard with his two hands to keep it steady. Peter removed streaks of wet hair from his eyes. ‘The fat one?’ ‘Yep. I didn’t think I would have enough, but Dad’s given me the rest.’ ‘I thought she wasn’t big on birds. She didn’t even read the last one.’ ‘She’s getting there, OK? She told me yesterday she never thought birds could be that interesting.’ ‘Me neither.’ ‘Don’t start! This one’s amazing. You should see the photos of kingfishers diving in the water. They must have used an underwater camera, but I’m not sure how they managed to do it, though.’ Peter pulled up the legs of his wetsuit with his right hand to maintain his stride. ‘Careful,’ Leo warned, ‘you nearly hit me with your board.’ ‘Sorry. My wetsuit’s a pain.’ ‘There’s also a chapter on Megapodes.’ ‘Mega-what?’ Leo sighed. ‘Me-ga-podes. They incubate their eggs in debris and monitor the temperature to make sure it stays right.’ ‘No kidding!’ Leo glanced at the ominous clouds. ‘Hurry up, it’s going to get dark in less than an hour.’ ‘Looks pretty dark to me already. Maybe we should give it a miss…’

Queensland Provincial Newspapers
"The Wings of Leo Spencer" is the type of book that draws the reader in from the first chapter. (...) A very imaginative and entertaining book, a great read for people of all ages
(Wendy O'Hanlon)

Pick of the Week
Jerome's writing style is fast-paced and economical, while being able to bring his characters to life by creating flaws and virtues which most readers can relate to (John Morrow)

Create a Kids' Book
Parisse has a lively style and an excellent plot idea in a created yet familiar world (Virginia Lowe)