Davies,
Stephen. Outlaw. Clarion (see Houghton Mifflin), 2011. 289p.
$16.99. ISBN 978-0-547-39017-8 ms/hs Genre:
Conflict E-BN
Jake is a smart, athletic,
technology-loving teenager. After
getting thrown out of boarding school for participating in a unique technology-based
game called "geothimble", he joins his family, who are living in
Burkina Faso. The culture, poverty, and
environment of Burkina Faso are interwoven into a plot that deals with the corruption
of the police and the struggles of poor people.
Jake and his sister are kidnapped by what appears to be a terrorist
cell. Their resourcefulness and
intelligence free them from their original captors, only to be taken into
captivity by another equally dangerous faction.
From mosquito ring tones to cyborgs to magic tricks, plus a unique way
to recharge a cell phone, this book provides lots of danger and action and
keeps the good guys in the lead. The
reader is consistently surprised at how quickly a situation changes from danger
to safety and back to danger again. This
is an outstanding action adventure that includes heartless executions of
adversaries, but also mirrors today’s headlines about kidnappings and hostage situations. The last three pages provide insight by the
author, who is a missionary in Burkina Faso, about what was real and what was
made up for the novel. The pronunciation
guide in these pages would have been better placed at the front of the book. This one is strongly recommended for
middle-school and high-school libraries.
Subject: Kidnapping -- Fiction.
Lois McNicol
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