Winner of a 2011 Printz Honor
16 year old Gemma and her parents are traveling from London to Vietnam. They have a layover in Bangkok where Gemma and her mother argue about what Gemma is wearing. To get away from her parents for a minute she tells them that she is going to get a cup of coffee. When she goes to pay for her coffee they won’t take British coins, so a stranger offers to pay. While sipping on her drink her vision becomes blurry. She has been drugged. When she wakes she finds that she has been kidnapped and taken to the desolate Australian outback. She tries to escape numerous times. Ty, her captor, has been watching Gemma for the past 6 years and believes that he is saving her. The author gives you a lot of insight into the wildlife and their desert surroundings. It is a fast-paced novel that I found difficult to read or to put down. Gemma hates Ty but is totally dependent on him for shelter, water, food, and safety. He teaches her how to survive desert life and believes that in time she will grow to love him.
There is some explicit language, so I would not recommend this for junior high students.
Review by Cindy Moyle, Granite School District Library Media Department
Rating: Four Stars
Interest Level: High School
Stolen
Written by Lucy Christopher
Chicken House / Scholastic
304 p.
ISBN: 9780545170932
Release Date: May 1, 2010
http://www.lucychristopher.com
