On the Run

Rating:
Summary: Fast paced and amazing.
Review: Originally titled Going Straight, this UK release about 15-year-old thief Luke Reid focuses who inherited his career choice from his father. Luke hates his father for missing his last 10 birthdays but hasn't quite made the logical leap that if he continues on this path he too will end up at Markham prison like his father. A possibility for reform and redemption comes in the form of blind marathon runner Jodie who is the victim of a crime Luke could have prevented. Coleman succeeds in creating a fast paced work that maintains suspense and doubt about the main characters' futures. In a few places the English lingo makes the text a bit obtuse, as most readers will not realize that `to grass' is thief slang for narcing or ratting someone out. Another area needing work is a slow chapter that is bogged down by entirely too much information about Louis Braille that would have been better suited to an epilogue. Luke is fascinating internally conflicted young man who has many gifts including the potential to change and the realization that he is in control of his own rehabilitation. The culmination of Luke's choices is a brilliant heart-pounding finale at the London Marathon involving tv cameras, police and an ambulance. All in all a compelling and wild ride about a boy with whom many young readers can emphasize and model their own desires for self-improvement.