Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Anna Charles, who has turned shoplifting into an art form and a way to vent frustration, feels her confidence crumbling when she begins finding things she does not remember stealing
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About the Author
Michael Cadnum is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for adults and young adults, including the contemporary novels Rundown, Heat, and Edge (all Viking) and the historical novel In a Dark Wood (Orchard/Puffin). Michael Cadnum lives in Albany, California.
copyright © 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up?In Breaking the Fall (Viking, 1992), Cadnum examined the function of crime in the lives of two boys who break into homes while the occupants sleep. Taking It is less suspenseful but more clearly focused, providing a new context for similar themes. Anna, 17, is caught in the middle of a broken marriage. She has invented a game in which she pretends to shoplift. Feasting on this delicious delusion, she enjoys spotting the plain-clothes detectives and knowing when they have spotted her. Then pretense becomes fact and she is stunned by the realization that her game has become an addiction?the one part of her life that she could control is now controlling her. Sadly, her parents are too preoccupied to respond to her signals for help. Caring but detached, they have given her a life of material affluence and emotional impoverishment. Turning to friends and finally to her older brother for support, she finds that they, too, are too involved in their own problems to take on hers. In desperation, she takes her car on a wild ride of escape, with nearly tragic consequences. Shocked into acknowledging their daughter's deep need for attention, her parents appear ready to take action at last. The story ends with a sense of hope that a resolution is at least possible, if not guaranteed. Some readers may have difficulty with the author's style, yet ultimately Anna's confusion is made all the more palpable by the disjointed way she relates her ordeal. She becomes a very real presence. The other characters are less complete, but Cadnum includes what is essential, and that is enough. If his work continues to show the skill and sensitivity contained in this novel, like Cormier and Crutcher he is sure to acquire and deserve many devoted followers.?Margaret Cole, Oceanside Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Taking It
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Paperback. Condition: Collectible-Very Good. Seventeen-year-old Anna Charles, who has turned shoplifting into an art form and a way to vent frustration, feels her confidence crumbling when she begins finding things she does not remember stealing. Seller Inventory # 9780140375701
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