Runner - by Carl Deuker (Paperback)

About the Book

Suspenseful, fast-paced, and timely, this novel avoids easy answers as it examines issues of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage, and lives of privilege and poverty. This brand-new paperback edition includes a Q-and-A with the author.

Book Synopsis

When a new job falls his way, Chance jumps at the opportunity, becoming a runner who picks up strange packages on a daily route and delivers them to a shady man at the marina. Chase knows how much he will earn--what he doesn't know is how much he will pay.

Suspenseful, fast-paced, and poignant, this novel avoids easy answers as it examines issues of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage, and the lives of privilege and poverty.

For a kid desperate to escape poverty, the job seems perfect. But what's really inside the packages he runs?

• A High-Stakes Thriller: Seventeen-year-old Chance is a runner, but this daily route involves more than just exercise--it involves mysterious packages, a shady deal, and dangers he can't comprehend.
• Moral Dilemma: The cash is good, a lifeline for him and his alcoholic father. But when Chance suspects he's a pawn in a much larger, deadlier game, he has to decide how much his integrity is worth.
• Poverty and Privilege: A gritty look at life on the margins, contrasting a teen living on a broken-down sailboat with the seemingly perfect lives of his classmates.
• A Patriotic Question: In a world shaped by terrorism, Chance is forced to confront what patriotism really means and where his loyalties truly lie.

Review Quotes

"The sports and suspenseful action will easily draw readers, as will the gripping adventure's deeper issues of crime, class, ineffectual parents, and a teen's questions about his uncertain future." Booklist, ALA

"Writing in a fast-paced, action-packed, but at the same time reflective style, Deuker uses fewer sports scenes than in his previous novels, and instead uses running as a hook to entice readers into a perceptive coming-of-age novel." School Library Journal

"Fast-paced and suspenseful." Horn Book

About the Author

Carl Deuker is a celebrated author of "top flight sports writing matched to uncommonly perceptive coming of age stories" (Kirkus Reviews). He describes his younger self as a classic second stringer: "I was too slow and too short for basketball; I was too small for football, a little too chicken to hang in there against the best fastballs. So, by my senior year the only sport I was still playing was golf." He was a teacher for many years in the Seattle area, where he now lives with his wife. carldeuker.ag sites.net/bio.htm