| Girl, Missing | |
|---|---|
First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Sophie McKenzie |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's, Adventure |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date | 2 October 2006 |
| Pages | 286 pp |
| ISBN | 978-1416917328 |
| OCLC Number | 70400191 |
Girl, Missing is a children's novel by Sophie McKenzie, published in 2006.
It won the 2007 Bolton Children's Book Award, the 2008 Manchester Book Award and the 2007 Red House Children's Book Award for Older Readers,[1][2][3] as well as being longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.[4] It was also one of the books picked for the Richard & Judy Children's Book Club.[5]
Contents |
The main character is 14 year old Lauren Matthews, who lives in London with her adoptive parents and her adopted parents' son, Rory. Lauren is doing an essay for homework entitled Who am I?, in which she has to write about her personality and her life. Eager to find out about her past, Lauren goes on Missing-Children.com, and finds an American girl of her age named Martha Lauren Purditt, who went missing less than two months before Lauren was adopted.
After comparing the photograph of Martha with a photograph of Lauren as a toddler, Lauren finds that she and Martha look alike. Lauren's friend James 'Jam' Caldwell comes round, and compares Lauren's face to the age-progressed photograph of Martha. They find that the two girls look alike. Lauren thinks she may be Martha, and finds out information about her adoption is in her adoptive mother's diaries. Whilst Lauren's mother is visiting Jam's mother Carla, Lauren finds her mother's diaries in the attic, and discovers she was adopted from Marchfield Adoption Agency in Vermont, USA.
After persuading her family to go on a holiday to a theme park in America, the family go to America (albeit leaving Lauren's adoptive father behind, and taking Jam in his place). While Lauren's mother and Rory are waiting to change planes, Lauren and Jam sneak off and get a plane to Burlington.
Once the plane lands, Lauren and Jam get a bus to Marchfield, where Lauren has a meeting with Taylor Tarsen, the owner of the agency. He refuses to show Lauren her adoption file, but when Lauren mentions Sonia Holtwood, a woman from her mother's diaries, Taylor tells Lauren she was looked after by Sonia before her adoption, and gives her $150 so she and Jam can stay in a motel. Jam informs Lauren that he found out where Lauren's adoption file is, and the two stay in a motel for the night.
That night, Lauren and Jam break into Marchfield and find Lauren's adoption file, but all that is in it is an address on a scrap of paper. Unfazed, Lauren and Jam go to an 24-hour taxi firm and get a taxi to the address. When they arrive at what they believe to be Sonia Holtwood's flat, they find that a young Spanish woman now lives there. However, they meet an old woman named Bettina, who used to babysit Lauren when she lived in the flat with Sonia. Bettina tells Lauren that, as a toddler, Lauren rarely smiled, but looked pretty when she did. On one of thses occasions, Bettina attempted to photograph Lauren but Sonia came bursting in, furious. Sonia and Lauren left the day after.
Lauren and Jam set out to find Sonia but end up cold and worried so when a "Police officer" comes up to Lauren and offers to take them to their destination Lauren accepts. After a brief discussion with Jam he accepts and he goes with her. The officer tells them who she really is and they find out she is Sonia Holtwood and she is trying to kidnap them. She gives them orange juice which is drugged so they both fall into a deep sleep and wake up hours later to find they are still in the car. Lauren pleads with Sonia to let them out and she does: in the middle of nowhere, twenty miles from the nearest place with a name. So Lauren and Jam start walking through the woods where they have an argument. Jam storms off so Lauren just lies down in the snow. She hears voices then goes back to sleep.
The next day she wakes up in a log cabin. She sees Jam and asks him what has happened. He says they were rescued by a man called Glane who took them to his log cabin. He then takes them to a motel for them to stay at because he was going home to Boston. Lauren goes on the internet to find out more about Martha Lauren Purditt. Her parents were Annie and Sam Purditt who lived in Evanport. Lauren decides she will hitch hike to get there but Glane won't hear of it so he takes them there himself. On the way Lauren is worrying about how she looks but Jam says she looks beautiful and he wants to ask her something.
At the house, Lauren is met by a girl aged thirteen, called Shelby who does not believe Lauren. Then a lady comes out and asks who Lauren is. Lauren repiles she is Martha. Lauren meets the other relatives, her real father Sam and a sister who is six. She stays with them for a while but starts missing her own family. Lauren finds out that her parents have been arrested and are in prison and after a phone call from her parents' lawyer, she has a row with Annie and storms off, prompting Annie to run after her. Lauren slams her bedroom door and when Annie storms in, the two have a furious confrontation. However, Annie apologises and angrily vows that she will never stop loving Lauren and fiercely hugs her, later showing her some baby photos and delights Lauren by showing her some affection.
After Lauren moves in with Shelby and Madison, her two sisters, she realises that Annie is a bit extreme in her emotion with Lauren. Lauren likes Sam much better than Annie, but the person she likes best is her grandmother, who understands her much better than either Sam or Annie. One day, Lauren finds Shelby twisting a knot in Madi's skin. Lauren sees many bruises there and is shocked. Lauren stops Shelby and comforts Madison. When she goes back to her room, she finds her phone with a bullying text message supposedly from Shelby, saying to keep quiet or die. She receives another of these later. One night while Lauren is downstairs making hot chocolate, she sees an intruder at the door. She recognises him as Jam, and lets him in. He proposes that they run away together but Lauren hesitates and says that she needs time to think about it. She, Jam and Madi all go down to the marine so they can talk. Jam gets mad when Lauren says that she doesn't want to leave her real family, and storms off. Then she gets another text. She thinks its from Shelby, but it's from Sonia Holtwood saying that her sister will die unless she goes to Sam's boat, 'The Josephine May'. There she finds Madi gagged and Sonia and a paid criminal called Frank. Lauren kicks Frank in an attempt to escape, and he tries to slap her. He is stopped by Sonia, who says that they have to found unharmed so that it looks like an accident. Later, Madi annoys Sonia by pretending to have an aching stomach. She gets hit by Sonia, sending her flying across the room and causing her to crack her head on a hard shelf. Sonia and Frank then leave the boat, after Lauren lies to Frank saying that she hasn't got her cellphone. Madi and Lauren have been wedged into the room by the Sonia and Frank, but then Jam appears and rescues them.
The next chapter is in the hospital, where Madi has still not awoken after smacking her head. Annie and Lauren are with her when she awakes, and the two share a true mother - daughter moment. Back at Sam and Annie's house, Lauren meets her adoptive parents at the door, they say that they have been released from jail and have been invited there by Sam and Annie. All of them have a conversation and Lauren is asked who she wants to live with: Sam and Annie or her adoptive parents. She replies that she chooses both.
Lauren says that she now partly lives with Sam and Annie, and that she spends the school term in England with her adoptive parents. She and Jam are together and Shelby has stopped being horrible to her and Madi. Lauren adds that she never spends more than a few weeks away from either family, and she ends by saying that she was asked to write another 'Who am I?' essay. She then says that it was easy because she finally knows who she is.
Lauren Matthews (nee Martha-Lauren Purditt)
The adoptive daughter of the Matthews and the biological daughter of the (then nineteen year olds) Sam and Annie Purditt. The biological sister of Shelby Annabelle Purditt (Shelbs) and Madison Gloria Annabelle Purditt (Madi).
James (Jam) Caldwell
Lauren's best friend, who is fifteen and goes with her on her journery. He later becomes her boyfriend.
Shelby (Shelbs) Purditt
Lauren's younger sister, aged thirteen (one year younger than Lauren). Lauren and Shelby do not get on, as Shelby claims Lauren and Madi leave her out.
Madison (Madi) Purditt
Lauren's favourite younger sister. Aged six. Madi is physically and emotionally bullied by Shelby.
Sam and Annie Purditt
Lauren's real parents whom she was stolen from at the age of three.
The sequel to 'Girl, Missing' was published in September 2011 called 'Sister, Missing'. It follows the story of Lauren's younger sister Madison being kidnapped under extremely similar circumstances to Lauren's own kidnapping and Lauren's quest to save her.