If your child doesn’t like poetry, don’t assume this will be a turn-off or that it will make the book difficult for your child. Many contemporary novels for children and teens these days are written in poetry. And for those who are ready for a slightly bigger challenge, they will find they can read the words that stand out at the ends of the lines in Darra’s poems to get an even more hidden story – Darra’s view of the event from six years earlier when she first learned her father had stolen a car. Helen Frost writes each chapter as a short poem, a form that makes the story easy to read, even for kids who struggle with reading. Only the readers of this book get the full story, since we get both girls’ stories in the alternating perspectives. They don’t even acknowledge that they have recognized each other. But both girls keep their thoughts and feelings hidden. And, of course, Darra remembers Wren from the news reports, and she blames her for her father’s imprisonment and her family’s hard times. Now fourteen, Wren has been able to put the traumatic event behind her, but she immediately recognizes Darra’s voice, although the two had never met. The information she is able to give the police led to the arrest of Darra’s father.įast forward six years and the two girls’ paths cross again when they are attending the same summer camp. Darra, certain that she was out there, began to leave her food, an act that helped Wren survive and eventually escape unharmed. When the news reports mentioned the missing girl, Darra looked for her in the car and around the garage but couldn’t find her.
She stayed hidden, even after the man pulled the car into his own garage and returned to his own family, which included another eight year old girl, Darra. She had been waiting in the backseat while her mother ran inside a convenience store to pay for gas, and her first instinct was to hide. Wren was just eight years old when she was unknowingly abducted by the man who stole her mother’s car. A story that could have been taken from the headlines grabs readers from the first lines and never lets them go.
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