The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster [Hardcover]

Mary Downing Hahn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 1991 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Forced to accompany their parents on their honeymoon in Spain, new stepsisters Amy and Felix find the animosity between them escalating, especially when Felix's boasting about family wealth to Grace, the mysterious world traveler, results in the kidnapping of the girls and their younger brother.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tagging along on her mother's honeymoon in Spain, Felicia knows there's no love lost between herself and her new stepsiblings, Amy and Phillip. But when Grace, an exotic and self-styled "citizen of the world," kidnaps the three, their differences become far less important than escape and simple survival. As in Zilpha Snyder's The Famous Stanley Kidnapping , the European locale serves to emphasize each child's particular temperament. Phillip the know-it-all offers a passing fluency in Spanish, while headstrong Felicia leads them out of the trouble she has helped cause. The book bucks convention by presenting the abductors fairly: in showing the reader cold-eyed Orlando, weak Charles and the idealistic and appealing Grace, Hahn offers a surprisingly understanding look at what impels people to terrorist activity. While the resolution of the natural resentment among the stepchildren may verge on the facile, the story offers a lively adventure for middle-grade readers. Ages 9-12.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-- While accompanying her newlywed mother; stepfather; and new siblings, Amy and Phillip, on a trip to Spain, Felix's exaggerations to a stranger about her family's wealth get the three children abducted by the mysterious Grace. Once the kidnapping has occurred, Felix plots with her stepbrother and stepsister to escape, and after a wild bus and van chase, the family is reunited. While the abduction and escape are one aspect of the plot, the other is the adjustment of the children to their new family situation. Thus, a craving for attention leads to Felix's lies, and the wearisome bickering between the two girls lasts until the very end of the story. While Grace, a "citizen of the world," does have a foreign air that would be intriguing to a young girl, her two cohorts in crime are rather shadowy, almost stereotypical figures who are fairly incompetent for all their glares and threats. There's little edge-of-the-seat suspense in the story, which depends on some implausibility and occasionally weak dialogue. In the end, Grace, who had initiated the kidnapping to get money "to help the African babies," is rewarded for helping the children escape after she is disillusioned with her partners, and the girls promise to be kinder to each other. --Susan Schuller, Milwaukee Pub . Lib .
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books (March 18, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395556961
• ISBN-13: 978-0395556962
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,946,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Downing Hahn, a former children's librarian, is the award-winning author of many popular ghost stories, including Deep and Dark and Dangerous and The Old Willis Place. An avid reader, traveler, and all-around arts lover, Ms. Hahn lives in Columbia, Maryland, with her two cats, Oscar and Rufus.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An awesome adventure book!, December 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster (Paperback)

The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster is one of my favorite books ever! It's such an awesome book, I recomend it for everyone. It's an adventure book that takes place in Spain. Felix meets a woman she wants to be just like; Grace. Her mom just remarried and know she has a stepsister and stepbrother she doesn't like. Knw all the kids have tag along on their parent's honeymoon in Spain. Graces saves them when they were lost, but she isn't what Felic thinks she is. Grace leads them all into a disasterous adventure the kids will never forget. Will Grace come through to them? This is a book you'll want to own so you can read it over and over again!

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Adventure in Ancient and Mysterious Spain!, August 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster (Paperback)

Spain is a wonderfully interesting country, and Felix and Amy and Phillip have come to visit with their new family after the recent marriage of their parents. Travel to Europe is not always interesting for boys and girls whose lives are filled with other activities and interests, but the children meet a woman named Grace in Toledo, and she takes them on an adventure that they never will forget!! This is a story of not only the feelings and emotions of the children, but it is a fine study in human relations and the slow melding of people from two families into one! This is a high interest book for middle and upper grade elementary school students and middle school age students