High School Pick: Blink & Caution

Blink & Caution
by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick Press
2011
342 pages

Gritty and provocative story-telling by master Tim Wynne-Jones bring this novel to the top of the high school must-read list.

Two street kids are about to be wrapped up in something that is big--really big---think shake the government to its foundations and topple big money corporations--big.

Blink just wanted a hot breakfast; he wasn't counting on the fateful events he is about to witness. He's learned that if he has the attitude and walks like he belongs somewhere, the doorman and the desk clerk generally ignore him. That's how he gets in the elevator at the ritzy Plaza Regent and takes it up to the sixteenth floor. Blink knows rich people get room service, and that they put their leftovers on the trays outside the rooms. He is always happy to find leftover pork chops or coffee still hot in the thermos. Just as he's celebrating his good fortune, a door opens and Blink hides near the ice machine. He sees several men exit the room wearing plastic gloves; Blink knows enough to know this isn't normal. He watches as they ditch a cell phone and throw a wallet into the room. They throw the room key card over their shoulders.

Blink can't help it; he has to investigate. When he does, he sees that a crime has been commited, but he can't tell what has happened really. He only knows he is now the owner of a sweet Blackberry and six hundred dollars richer.

Caution lives with a drug dealer since leaving her home. Her story is uncomfortable and edgy. She has had enough rough abuse and lies, so she steals the dealer's stash and is on the run from some really, really bad people. Caution has learned to be a loner--if only to save herself.

What happens when two young lives cross? Will Blink and Caution be able to team up and save themselves? Will each trust the other?

Readers will love both slightly damaged characters; both Blink and Caution are complex and hurt individuals.

Highly recommended grade 9-up. Language, violence, drug, gritty details.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

High School Picks

Shutter Island
by Dennis Lehane
Harper Collins, 2003
325 pages

Shutter Island is one crazy dream of a book. U. S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner are sent to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of an escaped patient from Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Soon, they are neck deep in mystery--how does an insane woman escape from a locked room? What are the cryptic clues Teddy is receiving and who is leaving the clues? What really goes on in Ward C? Are the doctors a super-secret government medical team investigating drug experimentation and mind control? Since the story takes place in 1954, Lehane is able to use history fact and fiction to present a sense of disbelief yet belief that the U.S. government would actually use a mental hospital to experiment on mental patients.

In a superb twist, Lehane makes readers question what is really going on--who is in charge, who is really insane, who is sane, and what constitutes sanity? Is the whole island an experiment to control thoughts and behaviors? There is no one better than Lehane at capturing character through subtle action and dialog. Shutter Island ranks right next to Mystic River as a great character study. Any budding novelist should read Lehane to get dialog right. He is the master.

The movie starring Leonardo di Caprio as Teddy should be a spooky tale.