Three Days [Hardcover]

Donna Jo Napoli (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

What if you were riding along a highway at night in a foreign country with your father, and he suffered a heart attack? What if no one stopped as you desperately tried to flag down help? And what if, instead of going to the police, the two men in the car that finally picked you up kept on driving?

These are the happenings that open Donna Jo Napoli's thrilling new book. Taking us to present-day Italy, she tells the story of eleven-year-old Jackie from Minnesota. After bringing the girl to a house in remote hilly country, the men disappear, and Jackie is left alone with a lovely woman who reminds her a little of her own mother back in the U.S. Over the three days the book takes place, Jackie realizes that something terrible has happened to these three people, and she must find out what, because that holds the key to her release.

Alternating terse, compelling prose to track the action with sensual descriptions of the Italian scenes, the award-winning novelist brings to life the world in which Jackie finds herself for three days. During their short time together, she comes to understand that although she and the woman, Claudia, share no language, what they do share is a deep humanity.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Eleven-year-old Jackie accompanies her father on a business trip to Italy. While driving to their hotel after dinner, he suffers an apparent heart attack but manages to pull over before dying. Nightmarish scenes follow when she is unable to get any help from passing motorists. Finally, a man and his grown son, Francesco, stop and take Jackie to the remote countryside hours away, where they live and force her to stay. Three days pass during which readers experience Jackie's fear, resourcefulness, courage, gradual acceptance of her father's death, and confusion over her fond feelings toward Francesco's sympathetic sister, Claudia. Ultimately, the woman helps Jackie escape by putting her on a train back to her mother. Safety tips are seamlessly incorporated into this action-packed book. Readers will admire Jackie's survival sense. She is observant, analytical, always looking for a way out of this frightening situation. Since her Italian captors speak no English, the first-person, nearly dialogue-free narration makes Jackie's isolation and confusion more immediate. Characterization is more complex than in most kidnapping tales, with the Italian family taking these drastic actions because they are dealing in an irrational way with the recent death of Claudia's daughter. Pair this story with James Duffy's Missing (Scribner's, 1988; o.p.) and Willo Davis Roberts's Hostage (Atheneum, 2000) for a suspenseful reading experience.

B. Allison Gray, South Country Library, Bellport, NY

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-8. Jackie is 11, and the first chapter in this page-turner is an evocation of her responses to being on a business trip in Italy with her dad: the lovely strangeness of it, and how she joyfully responds to the differences. But when her father collapses on a remote road while they are driving, Jackie's terror grows as two men, a father and son, pick her up, leave her father, and toss her passport. They take her to a house near the sea, where a woman with sad eyes cares for her. We are inside Jackie's head through all of this: she understands no Italian, and her conflicting responses of loneliness, fear, and sudden moments of pleasure over a ripe tomato or a songbird, make a tangle. But she reads her captors well, and learns their sorrow even as she figures out her own. A taut thriller that races to its complex conclusion. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 151 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1st edition (September 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525467904
• ISBN-13: 978-0525467908
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,318,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For all information about Donna Jo Napoli (books, events, biography, awards, contact information), please go to http://www.donnajonapoli.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three days, December 16, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Three Days (Paperback)

I think Three Days is a very scary, suspenseful, and a really shocking book. Jackie,an 11-year-old girl from Minnesota, goes on a business trip with her father to Italy. The night after they arrive, Jackie's father collapsed at the wheel of their rental car and eventually dies leaving Jackie all alone in the middle of the highway in a foreign country. She starts to panic, unsure of what to do or what is happening. Jackie figures out a plan. She starts running,screaming,and starts waving her hands for attention or help...but no one can hear her. Two men in a white, old car come to help Jackie, so she thinks. The men and Jackie drive past the hospital and stop at a river to throw all Jackie's identity that she was with her father. Eventually, they end up at the men's home. There was a lady standing outside this creepy old house drying their clothes.Her name is Claudia. Claudia does not think this is a good idea from what she is seeing. But Jackie runs into another problem. They do not speak English and Jackie doesn't speak Italian! The rest of this story revolves around Claudia helping Jackie escpape, or will she escape this nightmare? Read this very suspensful book to find out!!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars courtney clark, May 17, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Three Days (Paperback)

Three Days by: Donna Jo Napoli is a great book.I would reccemend this book to anyone who likes adventure and suspence.I like the way she describes how the problems are solved and how the setting of the book looks like and every tenee tiny detail of what is happening to Jackie in the book.I think that anyone who reads this book will think the same thing about the book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Three Days, November 17, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Three Days (Paperback)

This book Three Days by Donna Jo Napoli is a breath taker.

It shows you how your life could change enormously in 1 second.

Three Days is a story but it seems like a true account and as you

can tell it is an adventure book. In this book you can never know

what is going to happen next.

Three Days is a very strong book. There are so many

strengths. This is one of the reasons that I recommend Three Days.

This story is about an 11 year old girl named Jackie Holt who

went to Italy with her father. One night they were driving to their

hotel when all the sudden Jackie's dad collapses. I think this is

the strongest point in the book. Jackie gets scared. Jackie's dad

pulls the car to the side of the highway. The car still going fast

bounces over the rough ground. Jackie tries to get cars to stop

in every way she can think of. Then two Italian men picked her up

but instead of going to the police they took her to their home. She

meets a nice woman whose actions comfort Jackie.

Donna Jo Napoli did an excellent job on writing this book

and I hope to read more books that she has written.

I recommend this book because it has no weaknesses and

it is a great book. This book is for readers age 9-15. When you read

Three Days it is one of those books that gives you a tingle and

keeps your interest from beginning to end.