Theodore Boone: The Abduction [Paperback]

John Grisham (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 24, 2012 | Age Range: 8 and up | Series: Theodore Boone (Book 2)

#1 New York Times bestseller John Grisham's next Theo Boone novel, now in paperback!

When we last saw Theo Boone, he ensured that justice was served by uncovering evidence that kept a guilty man off of the streets. Hot off this high-profile murder trial, thirteen-year-old Theo is still dispensing legal advice to friends and teachers. But just when it seems as if his life has calmed down and gone back to the status quo, a new legal mystery comes to town, and this time it's personal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Grisham is wise and pragmatic about the world: poor parenting, prescription drug misuse and the violent lives of drifters all feature in this fast-paced tale' -- Financial Times on ABDUCTION Praise for THEODORE BOONE:'Not since Nancy Drew has a nosy, crime-obsessed kid been so hard to resist.' -- The New York Times 'Gripping... I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery. I think everyone will be enthralled by Theodore Boone.' -- Scholastic News 'There's a new kid on the young fiction block, and this one really does have serious powers: Theodore Boone, half-boy, half-lawyer... fans will be pleased to know there will be more of Theo's adventures to come.' -- Sunday Express 'If you aspire to turn your children into lawyers who will keep you in your old age, John Grisham's Theodore Boone, his first novel for young people, might be for you'. -- Sunday Times 'Contemporary lit for young readers has its icons: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Artemis Fowl. Make way for the new kid on the block.' -- USA Today Praise for John Grisham:'Nobody does legal fiction better' -- Daily Express 'a master of his craft' -- Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

John Grisham is the author of a collection of stories, a work of nonfiction, three sports novels, four kids' books, and many legal thrillers. His work has been translated into forty-two languages. He lives near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Puffin; Reprint edition (April 24, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142421375
• ISBN-13: 978-0142421376
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (270 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Children's Books > Mysteries & Detectives

More About the Author

Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, John Grisham was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby--writing his first novel. Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.That might have put an end to Grishams hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grisham's reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grisham's success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller. Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, The Broker, Playing for Pizza, and The Appeal) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 225 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man.

Photo credit Maki Galimberti

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#46 Overall (See top 100 authors)

#22 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#23 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#26 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

#30 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers

#37 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

#22 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#23 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#26 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

#30 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers

#37 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 103 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good reading. June 9, 2011

By Nashville TV Watcher

Format:Hardcover

I'm a good bit older than the suggested age range for this "juvenile reading" book. However, it's as much of a page-turner as Grisham's adult thrillers. Young Mr. Boone, middle school son of two lawyers, uses his smarts and legal knowledge to investigate a disappearance, the victim of which is a good friend. With help from his friends, and his black-sheep uncle, will Theo find the missing friend? It took only a few hours for me to find out, ripping through each page with great reading pleasure.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Page turner! June 11, 2011

A Kid's Review

Format:Hardcover

Theodore Boone is back again, and in John Grisham's newest mystery, Theo's friend, April, has vanished! The only problem is that no one has a clue what happened. Theo, her best friend, decides to do his own secret investigations with his closest friends and his ex-lawyer uncle Ike. Even working together on search efforts, they are getting nowhere fast, and everyone starts to wonder, "How long until we see her on the news dead or injured?"

This book is very well done. It is a page-turner that is almost impossible to put down. I recommend this to a younger audience, but even adults will like it!

34 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Offering from Grisham for Kids! June 10, 2011

By Joseph Landes

Format:Hardcover

In terms of reviewing this book, it is important to think of it from the standpoint of a 11-15 reading the book and not an adult as the young adult is really Grisham's primary target audience. With that in mind, in this story Grisham reintroduces us to Theodore Boone--a young man with a penchant for detective work and a budding 13-yr old "attorney." Both of his parents are lawyers and as a result he has a unique opportunity to combine his entrepreneurial skills with the ability to learn at his parents feet. In this the second Theodore Boone story by Grisham, he is immediately thrown into the fray when his best friend April goes missing. He doesn't necessarily believe at first that she was in fact taken by someone else but after days of her continuing to go missing as well as the appearance of an old family relative back from jail, he fears the worst. The story continues with his somewhat odd uncle Ike once again coming on the scene to help out and eventually play a big role in the resolution of this mystery.

From the standpoint of recommending it to children, I thought the subject matter was appropriate for agest 13-and up. The subject matter of kidnapping might be a bit tough for kids younger than that to take and sometimes the descriptions got fairly graphic. The story also touches on divorce which is a subject that needs to be handled carefully around young children. I was slightly dissapointed with how Grisham chose to end the book. It felt very abrupt and I thought he could have done a bit of a better job goign slightly deeper into the relationship between Theodore and his parents and even Theodore and April. Overall however a strong book and one that will likely do well especially with teens.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Bother with This ... August 1, 2011

By Should I Buy It?

Format:Hardcover

This was just as boring and unbelievable as in the first novel of the series - the story just plods along. Theo is nowhere as believably clever as the young boy in The Client. The improbable dialogue, pedantic tone of the writing, and the overt, tedious effort to make Theo as savvy a 13-year old as possible, and smarter than some adults, makes this book an absolute chore to read. Also, the denouement is woefully anticlimactic.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this series may not be as popular with its target audience as with adults but, regardless, Grisham's novels do have a lot of selling power. You should save your money and, if you really must read this book, check it out from the library instead.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Damp squid October 21, 2012

By Phililp Swan

Format:Paperback

This book is intended for young adults? There was little or no indication of this in the blurb.

Despite that, just because the target audience is a young one does not excuse the sloppy writing, the poor structure, the risible plot, the lack of any sense of reality, and poor character development.

A page turner? Yes, but only in the sense that to retain any interest at all it was necessary to skip large chunks.

John Grisham, stick to what you do best.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a snoozefest November 19, 2011

By RandomizeME

Format:Audio CD

"Theodore Boone: The Abduction" by John Grisham is his follow-up to his 2010 foray to YA fiction "Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer". The first book left readers hanging with an unresolved murder trial, but that isn't covered in book #2 (although it's indicated at the end of The Abduction that Book #3 would pick-up with the murder trial again). Instead, book #2 is more of a stand-alone story dealing with the possible abduction of Theo's best friend April.

I listened to the audiobook of The Abduction (as read by Richard Thomas) in the gym. I thought that a nice thriller would be a good pick-me-up, but no, I found it really sleepy and dull. Richard Thomas did his best with the boring material, but seriously, this is one long zzzzz. I'm not exactly sure how Grisham managed to make a story dealing with the possible abduction of a child so unexciting and oddly lacking in tension (including a really lame conclusion which was stretched out for far too long)

The best part of The Abduction had nothing to do with the main plot at all - it's a little interlude where Theo shows up at Animal Court and defends a feisty old parrot in danger of having its wings clipped. I found myself laughing out loud and enjoying myself for the first time in the book (Richard Thomas did the voices really well for the Animal court scenes), and wished for more scenes like that. I think I'd actually be happier if Grisham came out with a "Theodore Boone: Animal Court" anthology instead!