On the Run

Gr 5–8—The most adventure Ben sees on a daily basis is in the stop-motion movies he makes alone in his room, and that's the way he likes it. However, his safe, sedentary life is altered when Ben's parents whisk him and his sister away on a road trip to an isolated cabin in the woods. His parents claim they are on vacation, but Ben begins to think they are on the lam. He pieces together clues to discover that millions of dollars were mistakenly deposited into his parents' bank account, and they've chosen to run off with it. He is torn between turning in his parents to the authorities, thereby ending the misery of being on the run, and staying loyal to them, thereby seeing if money (even if stolen) can indeed buy happiness. This is an adventure story with broad appeal, from high-speed police chases, to wilderness survival. There are a number of extended, suspenseful scenes, including one in which the boy and his sister must survive on their own in the woods for several days. Ben is a well-developed, sympathetic character, grappling with a cruel father, weight problems, and evolving confusion about his place in his family, with age-appropriate confusion and insecurity.