Runner

by Carl Deuker

Overview

When a new job falls his way, Chance jumps at the opportunity, becoming a runner who picks up strange packages on a daily route and delivers them to a shady man at the marina. Chase knows how much he will earn—what he doesn’t know is how much he will pay.

Suspenseful, fast-paced, and poignant, this novel avoids easy answers as it examines issues of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage, and the lives of privilege and poverty.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780618735051
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/23/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	176,964
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Carl Deuker is the author of many sports novels, including On the Devil's Court, Heart of a Champion, and Painting the Black, all of which were selected as ALA Best Books for Young Adults. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

"The sports and suspenseful action will easily draw readers, as will the gripping adventure’s deeper issues of crime, class, ineffectual parents, and a teen’s questions about his uncertain future." Booklist, ALA

"Writing in a fast-paced, action-packed, but at the same time reflective style, Deuker uses fewer sports scenes than in his previous novels, and instead uses running as a hook to entice readers into a perceptive coming-of-age novel." School Library Journal

"Fast-paced and suspenseful." Horn Book —

From the Publisher

Gr 7 Up-When his alcoholic Gulf War veteran father is fired from the first steady job he has held in years, Chance Taylor is understandably glum. He has no idea where they'll get the money to pay the moorage fees for the run-down sailboat they call home. Since his parents' divorce, Chance has tried to keep a low profile in school, and his only pleasure is running by himself along the Seattle waterfront. When a marina office employee offers to pay him $250 a week to pick up occasional packages at a tree along his running route, Chance is deeply suspicious of what they may contain but desperate enough to accept this opportunity to pay the bills. As this new job gradually becomes more dangerous and more clearly illegal, Chance's father is able to rise above his personal problems to help extricate his son. In a gripping climax complete with SWAT teams swarming throughout the marina as Coast Guard patrol boats close in on terrorists, Chance is afforded a final glimpse of the heroic man his father once was. Writing in a fast-paced, action-packed, but at the same time reflective style, Deuker uses fewer sports scenes than in his previous novels, and instead uses running as a hook to entice readers into a perceptive coming-of-age novel. A subplot involving Chance's friendship with a wealthy female classmate whose father was a close high school friend of Chance's father is nicely integrated into this timely, compelling story.-Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor lives on a sailboat at the marina. The boat's not seaworthy and represents the life Chance and his father share-rocking back and forth and going nowhere. Chance sits in the back of every classroom, making himself invisible. Mr. Taylor drinks, has trouble holding down a job and struggles to pay the bills. So, Chance agrees to be a runner, picking up mysterious parcels on his daily running route and passing them on to the fat man from the marina, knowing that it's probably wrong and likely dangerous, but it pays very well. Sinister goings-on, a murder, last-minute heroism and a new life rich with possibility make this a satisfying read. Deuker's brisk narrative, long on action if short on embellishment, will carry along even the most reluctant of readers in this post-9/11 tale of terrorism on the Puget Sound. (Fiction. 11+)

Kirkus Reviews