The Accidental Kidnapping

Girl, Stolen 
by April Henry
Henry Holt & Company (2010)
224 pages
ISBN:  0805090053
Grades 7-10

Seeing a Cadillac Escalade running with the keys in the ignition, Griffin impulsively hops in and drives away.  What he doesn't see is the teenage girl in the back seat under a blanket.  The girl, Cheyenne, has pneumonia and is waiting in the car for her stepmother to come back from the pharmacy with her prescription medicine.  Oh, and Cheyenne is blind.

When he realizes he hasn't simply stolen a car, Griffin doesn't know what to do, so he heads home to his abusive father and his two creepy cronies.  Author April Henry conceived the idea for this novel from a real-life story of a blind girl caught in a car jacking.  In the real story the carjacker lets the girl out, abandons the vehicle, and is never found.  In the fictional story, Cheyenne's carjacker is a teenage boy, and his father a petty criminal, who, upon learning that Cheyenne's father is the CEO of Nike, turns the carjacking into a kidnapping.

What Griffin realizes is that his father has no intention of letting Cheyenne go when he gets the ransom.  Griffin treats Cheyenne with kindness, but is not sure how, or if, he can ensure her ultimate survival.  Cheyenne doesn't know if she can trust Griffin, but either way she's not going to let herself be killed without a fight.  Cheyenne is a gutsy, smart survivalist, who is vastly underestimated by her kidnappers.  Even more enthralling than the plot is the relationship that develops between the two teenagers, and I found myself rooting not just for Cheyenne but for Griffin as well.



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