Noble Warrior (Caged Warrior Series #2)

by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

Overview

After placing teenage mixed martial arts phenom McCutcheon Daniels and his mother and sister in the Witness Relocation Program,the FBI comes to realize they have a unique asset on their hands. Recruited to help the FBI, McCutcheon finds himself hunting bad guys. But when he discovers that the notorious Priests have targeted Kaitlyn???the girl he loves and was forced to leave behind???as a way to seek revenge on the Daniels family, MD convinces the FBI to send him right into the belly of the beast: Jenkells State Penitentiary where the mob boss of Detroit is serving time. Yet in his universe where up is down, McCutcheon ends up disavowed by the government and left to rot in one of America's most notorious prisons. It's there here connects with his father and discovers the truth about his circumstances. McCutcheon, a trained urban warrior, escapes ??? and sets out for revenge on those who betrayed him and his family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484720097
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	07/21/2015
Series:	Caged Warrior Series , #2
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	770L (what's this?)
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Alan Lawrence Sitomer is a nationally renowned speaker and was California's Teacher of the Year in 2007. He is also the author of multiple works for young readers, including Daddies Do It Different, Nerd Girls, the Hoopster trilogy, Cinder-Smella, and The Alan Sitomer BookJam. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.

Editorial Reviews

A teenage mixed martial arts genius works covert ops for the U.S. government. It's been 10 months since the witness protection program whisked McCutcheon "M.D." Daniels and his little sister away from their miserable lives in Detroit. In that time, M.D. has been working with the military, training in the arts of black ops, and occasionally going into the field and using his unique set of skills to catch predators. Meanwhile, back home, the Priests have targeted M.D.'s abandoned flame and his father in efforts to draw the boy that got away out from hiding. It all comes to a head with an undercover M.D. entering Jentles State Prison, a facility notorious for breaking prisoners beyond imagination. Sitomer's Caged Warrior (2014) was an exciting action thriller that leaned into its darkest elements in smart, interesting ways. Unfortunately this sequel can't pull off the same balancing act. This scenario involving top-secret government agencies and Supermax prisons is completely removed from the reality established in the previous book. Instead of escalating the stakes, the author has blown them up to comic-book levels. When everything is so big and so tough and so gritty and so violent, there's no room for hope, nor is there much room for reader engagement. The book concludes with a beat that feels cribbed from The Shawshank Redemption and a hint at further books. Few readers will want to follow. A sequel that destroys the goodwill established by its predecessor. (Thriller. 12-16)—Kirkus

From the Publisher

06/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—Recruited by the F.B.I. as an urban warrior, 17-year-old McCutcheon "M.D." Daniels is a martial-arts phenom fighting gang violence in his Detroit hometown. In this sequel to Caged Warrior (Disney-Hyperion, 2014), M.D. is lured out of the Witness Protection Program to infiltrate a prison, and knock off "The High Priest," leader of the Detroit gang responsible for numerous atrocities of domestic terrorism and forcing M.D.'s family into hiding. Disconnected from his girlfriend, Kaitlin, M.D. fears for her safety and accepts the (supposedly) three-day mission at Jentles Penitentiary, (or "D.T" Devil's Toilet), which houses the most notorious felons in Michigan, including M.D.'s own dead-beat father. Once inside, it becomes clear to readers that M.D. has an ulterior motive for wanting "in," and that his mentor, Colonel Stanzer, may have purposely arranged this as a no-return suicide mission for the teenager whose ethics often get in the way of F.B.I. goals. Captive, and at the mercy of his conniving father and crooked guards, M.D. relies on martial arts strategies to stay calm, focused, and alert. Gritty fighting details keep the well-paced drama flowing, and it is suspenseful to the end as obstacles mount for M.D.'s possible escape, and motives of minor characters seem to add up to an ultimate betrayal for the teen. Some raw language and situational violence inherent in urban gang warfare juxtaposes M.D.'s strong moral values, for even more hero appeal. VERDICT Not just for martial-arts fans, but for all teen readers who thrive on roller-coaster action and drama.—Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland

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