| Abduction! | |
|---|---|
First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Peg Kehret |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Dutton Juvenile |
| Publication date | November 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 192 |
| ISBN | 9780142406175 |
Abduction! by Peg Kehret, is a novel about a 13 year old girl named Bonnie who searches for her brother Matt and their dog Pookie who were both abducted.
Contents |
Matt, a six year old boy, is kidnapped by his father, Denny, who he had never met. Though he has always dreamed of meeting him, nothing is the way he thought it would be given his father is only using Matt to obtain money to gamble. With little clues to follow, Matt's mother and sister, and the police, are doing everything they can to find him. Matt's sister, Bonnie, sees Matt at a Mariner's baseball game, but is caught by Denny. Now both captive, the siblings attempt to escape. On the ferry, Bonnie signals to Matt to throw his hardest pitch. The baseball hits Denny, which allows the two to escape. Denny is then apprehended. [1]
Peg Kehret states that the inspiration for the novel comes from her conversations with her neighbour, a police officer. After learning from him that the main problem was that abducted children were tricked into going along with the kidnapper despite having been taught otherwise, she decided to write a novel on an abducted child. Kehret hoped that by writing this novel, children would learn to think twice when approached by someone unexpected and asked to go with them.[2]
In researching abducted children in America, Kehret commented that she was surprised to see the high number of children currently listed as missing, and how many of those are taken by a relative.[2]
In terms of character names, initially the abductor's name was Perry, but after a librarian was added called Perry, this was changed to Denny.[2]
Kehret has stated that no particular author or book influenced her work but that she had a sense of what she hoped to accomplish and worked to achieve that.[2]
On March 30, 2006, this book was featured on a KMSP newscast discussing a parent who was disturbed by the book when her 4th grader brought it home and read it aloud. This book contains graphic language including a descriptive account of a man holding a gun to a woman's heart.
In 2007, Abduction! was awarded the Mark Twain Award by the Missouri Association of School Librarians. [3]