Customer Reviews

Theodore Boone: The Abduction

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

This is a believable adventure for young Theodore Boone and there are many subtle lessons in compassion and caring in this book. Grisham , as usual, does an excellent job in keeping the reader entertained and interested in the fate of these young people. Anything that makes preteens and teenagers worthy of our interest and respect is such a rarity these days. I found this book a very quick read and such fun.

"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!

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.

A joy to red. Grisham picks up with the characters from the first Kid Lawyer book without a lot of recallling details about them all. Theo has matured; the Gresham humor is just right, and we don't have intricate information as inthe regular novels. I loved it.

Great story for start to finish. We need more books like this for kids that will take them away from the video games.

Theodore Boone: The Abduction is an excellent follow up to Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. Grisham has a unique ability to express his stories from the viewpoint of a youngster. I got an extra copy of Kid Lawyer for my ten-year old grandson, and he loved it. Grisham may help a new generation develop an interest in reading.

Excellant series by Grisham for young readers. The main characters are school children but the writing is in no way childish. All you need to know about our court systems and trials without feeling like a class assignment. Start with the first in series "Kid Lawyer" and you will be hooked. Highly recommended.