Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Taken. (Port City High)

Freeman, Shannon.  Taken.  (Port City High)  Saddleback     2014  200p  $9.95  ISBN 978-1-62250-038-3  hs  Realistic fiction  A

Shane, Marisa and Brandi are three freshmen at Port City High.  Each does well in school and participates in extracurricular activities, but also faces challenges at home (parental substance abuse, sibling teen pregnancy, caring for a younger sibling).  The book covers the second half of freshman year, when Shane and Marisa are trying out for the school play, Shane’s older sister is pregnant and Brandi’s father is struggling with substance abuse.  Brandi hides her pain by losing herself on the social network Friender and talking to a boy from another school called Camden.  After deciding finally to meet him, she disappears.  While Brandi is not tortured or abused in any way during her capture, the story serves as a warning to the stranger danger of meeting people online, without being graphic as to how badly such an event could turn out.  Like the abduction, the substance abuse is handled in a very PG way.   

Summary:  Shane, Marisa and Brandi are three freshmen at Port City High.  Each does well in school and participates in extracurricular activities, but also faces challenges at home.  When one of them becomes involved in an online relationship, she is abducted.   

High school-Fiction, Drug abuse-Fiction, Abduction-Fiction 
--Stephanie Pennucci

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