Sunday, July 6, 2008
Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Jessie has grown up thinking she lives in the early 19th century. But, as diphtheria begins to ravage her little village's children, her mother makes the most shocking revelation. The year is not 1840, but 1996. Jessie's mom tells her about the odd situation in which they and other families in their village, then explains that there is a cure for diphtheria, but for some reason the group that runs the village has decided that they will not give out the medicine. Jessie is sent to sneak out of the compound, and find Mr. Neely, someone who can help. As Jessie flees, she must figure out the world around her and decide who she can and can't trust. Finally, Jessie gets the help she needs for the children of Clifton village, but at a price, she herself falls victim to diphtheria, and loses her parents for a brief time. At the end, the family returns to the village to be caretakers to the land.
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2 comments:
How do YOU think this rates as a mystery for children? How does it compare with other Haddix books?
NP
This one is one of my favorites. I love Ella best...I think this ended really fast, sort of..."I'm tired of this story, let's just wrap it up." I think more could have been put into the final chapters, more should have been done with the dad. I realize that he's a bit of a minor character, but I think that so much of the book depended on his decisions before the opening and the reasons for the whole family crisis came from his decisions that more time should have been spend 'fixing' his problems, or at least addressing them. The lack of attention disturbed me a bit.
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