Someone Was Watching

Thirteen-year-old Chris Barton views a video that he made on the day his younger sister disappeared and finds a clue to her whereabouts that leads him on a journey halfway across the country.

Grade 5-8-- Fans of the Hardy Boys are sure to find Patneaude's first novel even better. Chris and his best friend, Pat, have a couple of weeks of summer vacation in which to defy disbelieving parents and fly from Wisconsin to Florida on a special mission: to rescue Chris's three-year-old sister, presumed drowned, from kidnappers. While there is some evidence that Molly is dead and that the clues Chris gleans from a video are only wishful thinking, Patneaude quickly has readers as hopeful as Chris that she is alive. Middle schoolers will love it--and hopefully not get the idea to withdraw their savings accounts and head for who knows what part of the world. (Questioning 13-year-olds doesn't seem to be part of the travel agent's or hotel clerk's agendas). Light (considering the potentially tragic subject matter), lightly sexist, and capably written, the novel doesn't hit readers with guilt like, say, Marion Bauer's On My Honor (Clarion, 1986), but touches on personal tragedy, fear, counseling, hope, and spirit in a contemporary buddy/action story.
- John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The sadness pervading the first few pages of this decently written first novel is almost overwhelming: Chris and his parents return to the summer home where his toddler sister Molly apparently drowned three months earlier; the family is just beginning to come to grips with their loss. Viewing a videotape made that terrible day, Chris interprets it with poignant optimism--maybe Molly was kidnapped, maybe she's alive, maybe he can find her. With longtime best friend Pat (and without the knowledge of his parents, who are suitably skeptical about the scenario he envisions), Chris travels to Florida and locates the elderly couple who have convinced Molly that she belongs to them. So much of this mild adventure works that it seems almost curmudgeonly to point out its faults: the boyish eighth graders encounter no real difficulties in their journey; the kidnappers' motives, arrest, and punishment are barely hinted at; there's an unsettling shift to Molly's point of view that all but confirms the outcome, diffusing any lingering suspense. But holding everything together are the characters' feelings; their grief and reactions to various dilemmas are so pure and credible that readers will willingly put doubts aside to join in the search. (Fiction. 11-13) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.