The Missing: Found – Margaret Peterson Haddix

‘It wasn’t there. Then it was.
Later, that was how Angela DePre described the airplane – over and over again to one investigator after another – until she was told never to speak of it again’

One night a plane appeared out of nowhere, the only passengers aboard: thirty-six babies. As soon as they were taken off the plane, it vanished. Now, thirteen years later, two of those children are receiving sinister messages, and they begin to investigate their past. Their quest to discover where they really came from leads them to a conspiracy that reaches from the far past to the distant future–and will take them hurtling through time.

 

 

 

What I thought:

Although I read a lot of YA this is aimed at a younger crowd that what I normally read. (9-12) Which meant I did at times find it simplistic, but it wasn’t aimed at me so that’s not a criticism, more a statement of fact. However ignoring that I did find myself enjoying it, it’s a fun read about children who discover that not only are they adopted (although the MC already knew this about himself his friend didn’t) but for some reason their adoption was done through the CIA.  Jonah and his friend Chip both receive a letter in the post telling them that they are a member of ‘The Missing’ which leads to the two of them and Jonah’s sister Katherine into trying to find out as much as they can about their secretive past/beginning.
As it was aimed at people much younger me I didn’t wasn’t too surprised by what happened but there was still a twist or two that I didn’t see coming – Kudos to her!
It also makes a big deal about what counts as being a ‘real’ parent, the birth parent or the adoptive parent. Jonah is open in his belief that his real Mum and Dad are the ones who brought up up whilst as far as Chip is concerned his parents are not his real ones. This leads to interesting conversations between the two boys that is age appropriate and if a child is living with people who aren’t their birth parents it would probably help that the MC is completely OK with his adoption and Chip’s belief about what constitutes as real mostly comes from the fact that he didn’t know he was adopted.  It also brings up interesting questions at the end about a sense of self and how important memories are – for someone who studied Philosophy I found it really interesting. I could and would use this book to have these kind of ‘deep’ discussions with children.

Why I read this:

This was written by a friend’s cousin. 🙂

Final Thoughts:

Like I said this a really fun read. I enjoyed it and at some point I’ll read the sequel although I’m not desperate to do so right now.

Would I recommend: Not to any of my friends because I think they might be too old for it. But for young kids – especially young boys – aged 12/13 I would definitely suggest it!

Challenges

Popsugar – A book you borrowed (I got my copy from the library), About time travel, Meant to read in 2017 but didn’t get round to (I got it out from the lib beginning of December and kept renewing it and pushing it back as I didn’t fit with any of the challenges I had left as I was racing towards the end last year),

Read Harder – First book in a YA series.

 

I hope you are all enjoying my reviews and thoughts, I’m really enjoying writing them down.
As always, please comment and let me know what you think.

*BYEEEEE*
Rea