Girl, Stolen, by April Henry

Girl, Stolen by April Henry is about this girl named Cheyenne Wilder, and what happens when she gets kidnapped by accident. Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of her stepmom's car while her mom gets medicine for her. Suddenly Cheyenne realizes that their car is being stolen. The kidnapper, Griffin, hadn't meant to kidnap Cheyenne, he really just want to steal the car. Once Griffin's dad figured out that Cheyenne's father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes. They now have a reason to keep her. Cheyenne has to survive this nightmare. Not only is she sick with pneumonia, she's also blind.

Girl, Stolen is a very suspenseful novel. This book is constantly interesting and never bored me. My favorite aspect of this book was how brave and resourceful Cheyenne was and how thoroughly her blindness was integrated into the story. Her blindness was presented in a believable and enlightening way, and I liked that she was so smart and capable. This was such a fascinating read. It was thrilling and fast-paced, I literally gasped a few times! The story was told from alternating view points and sometimes this can be distracting, but here it really worked well. Both main characters were really well written

Reviewed By: Emily R., Grade 9
Montrose Library



Comments

Teen Speak said…
The story is about this girl named Cheyenne Wilder that has been captured by a guy named Griffin. Its all starts out when Cheyenne was sleeping in the back of her step mom's car.She thought that her mom was driving the car to get medicine. But she soon realizes that the car that she is in is going to get stolen by a guy named Griffin. Sooner or later, Griffin finds Cheyenne Wilder in the trunk of the car. Griffin's dad realizes that the Cheyenne's father is the president of a powerful corporation and makes it a reason to kidnap her. Cheyenne must do her best to survive this terror because she is sick with pneumonia and also blind.

The story is interesting because the character is blind and it makes me still question is that How can she survive if she doesn't know where is she going? The story feels kinda suspenseful because the character can't see what's going to happen. I would recommend this book to people that like to read suspenseful stories like this one. The book made me feel a little nervous because of Cheyenne being blind and knowing where she is going

Reviewed by: Lenard M., grade 10
Pacific Park Library
Teen Speak said…
When I came across this book and noticed its title consisted of the words "girl" and "stolen", I knew it would be a suspenseful and intriguing book I would enjoy. In the beginning of the story, we are introduced to a sixteen year-old girl named Cheyenne who is restlessly sitting in the back of her unlocked and expensive car, sick with pneumonia. We then find out her step-mother is off to fill out a prescription for her and she is blind. All of a sudden, the girl realizes the car is being stolen along with herself and she tries to strangle the mysterious abductor. The reader then switches to the perspective of a boy, named Griffin, who is unaware of any humans being in the car when he drove off with it, let alone a blind girl. As soon as his extraordinary family and friends find out she is daughter of the president of a big corporation, only ransom comes into their mind. However, an unlikely bond forms between Cheyenne and Griffin as he works to undo his mistake.

Reading Girl Stolen confirmed the fact that this book was the best one in April Henry's repertoire of kidnapping novels. I liked that this story is a thrilling model of a teenaged girl's willingness to do anything to survive in a dangerous situation. In addition, this book showed the compromise a teen had to make while having to make a choice between his friends and what he thought was right. Furthermore, this tale illustrated the developing feelings of two adolescents, as improbable as it may be, making its ending the definition of bittersweet. I would recommend this book to those who find gripping stories like this as appealing as I did.

Reviewed by Alexis K., Grade 9
Montrose Library
Teen Speak said…
Young Cheyenne Wilder, waiting in the back seat of her stepmom's car, was waiting for her to come back when suddenly the SUV door opened and drove off, with her in it. It didn't take her long to realize it wasn't her mom driving it. She was being kidnapped. Griffin, a boy around her age, didn't know she was in the backseat. He didn't mean to kidnap her. It was all a huge mistake. He has no choice but to take her captive to his home where he lives with his dad. They plan on dropping Cheyenne off in the middle of nowhere, but later they saw news that her dad is the president of Nike. Now they can't let her go and instead use her as a negotiation tool for money. Cheyenne must find a way to escape, but that's not going to be so easy, because for 3 years, she's been blind.

The book jumps right into the action. From the very first page, we are already introduced to the conflict of her being kidnapped. It is an absolutely thrilling book and it is structured a bit differently from most books. It delves onto the character of Cheyenne Wilder later on, and introduces the kidnapping problem that Cheyenne faces first, except for the obvious problem of her being blind. Not many books have a blind protagonist, and to see how Cheyenne has dealt with being blind in the past, and deals with being blind through her captivity is very interesting. I would highly recommend this book to those who want to see a protagonist overcome obstacles through sheer brain power and to those looking for a book that's an absolute thrill ride from beginning to end.

Reviewed by Rolan Duclayna, Grade 9
Glendale Central Library

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