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Overview
Some friends fade away….Others disappear. Now in paperback, a riveting mystery that will “keep the pages turning” (Chris Crutcher, author of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes).
Imagine you and your best friend head out West on a cross-country bike trek. Imagine that you get into a fight—the cheap SOB won’t kick in any cash—and you stop riding together. Imagine you reach Seattle, go home alone, and start college. Imagine you think your former best friend does too. Imagine he didn’t, that he was carrying more than $20,000 in cash the whole trip, and that now the FBI is looking for him. Imagine your world shifting....
Shift is a breathtaking tour-de-force that explores the depths of loyalty and friendship—and the unknowable depths of another person.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"This is great realistic mystery. Jennifer Bradbury tells a totally believable, totally engrossing story. You will keep the pages turning." -- Chris Crutcher, the Margaret A. Edwards Award-winning author of Deadline and Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
* "Bradbury's keen details about the bike trip, the places, the weather, the food, the camping, and the locals add wonderful texture to this exciting first nove."--Booklist, starred review
* "Bradbury's keen details about the bike trip, the places, the weather, the food, the camping, and the locals add wonderful texture to this exciting first nove."--Booklist, starred review
"Endowing both boys with a heavy dose of idealism, responsibility and self-preservation, Bradbury makes their growth feel genuine and even profound."--Publishers Weekly
"The journey [is] the kind of glorious, frustrating, life-changing experience that the boys had hoped and that readers will yearningly imagine....Readers will come for the thrill of the open road and stay for an authentic picture of a friendship between two young men about to tackle adulthood in very different ways."--The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books
Publishers Weekly
For best friends Chris and Win, nothing could be more gratifying than a two-month-long cross-country bike trip following high school graduation. But when Win suddenly disappears somewhere in Montana, and Chris, the narrator, returns home alone to Virginia with only a hunch where his friend might be, Chris's once-firm grasp on reality slowly begins to weaken-especially when Win's overprotective, blowhard father launches an FBI investigation to track down his son. This debut novel transcends the run-of-the-mill alienated-teens-on-a-road-trip plot. While the boys meet interesting people and discover fascinating and gorgeously lonesome parts of the country, they also evolve in ways neither thought possible. Endowing both boys with a heavy dose of idealism, responsibility and self-preservation, Bradbury makes their growth feel genuine and even profound. Chris and readers are equally in the dark about Win's disappearance, making the mystery that much more exciting. Ages 12-up. (May)
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Reminiscent of Chris Crutcher's Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes or E. L. Konigsburg's Silent to the Bone, this book is a story of a boy going to extraordinary lengths to save a friend. It begins on a bike trip across America, taken by two recently graduated high schoolers, Chris and his best friend Win. They begin in Virginia and are supposed to end in Seattle before heading home on the bus. Yet in eastern Washington, Win ditches Chris and rides off into the sunset. Chris, angry and betrayed, rides the bus home alone and begins his first year of college. The problem is that Win's overbearing and incredibly powerful father, who never cared about Win when he was actually present, now thinks Chris knows Win's whereabouts. Chris is dogged by the unwanted attentions of this father, a Javert-like FBI agent breathing threats. Chapters alternate to tell the story of the bike trip and the mysterious secrets Chris uncovers about Win and to recount Chris's attempts to lead a normal college life while evading the FBI agent and deciphering the meaning of the cryptic postcards he keeps receiving. It takes him a while, but he finally realizes the postcards are from Win, and then he must deduce where Win is hiding and save him from discovery by said incredibly powerful father. Can he do it? Of course he can, and he matures in the process, too (surprise!). This is also another story of a teenage trip across the byways of America (a la Route 66); it contains lots of arcane lore about bike riding, and boys bonding. Reviewer: Myrna MarlerSchool Library Journal
Gr 8 Up- Best friends Chris and Win head out on a West Virginia to Washington State bicycle adventure after high school graduation, at the end of which Win disappears. Alternating chapters flash back to details of the trip, then forward to a private investigation instigated by Win's powerful father to uncover why his son told lies to Chris about an uncle in Seattle who doesn't exist, among other things. Little by little, Win's rich, domineering, and neglectful parents come more into focus, and it becomes evident that the teen needed to escape their iron rule. Win's father is sure Chris is keeping his son's whereabouts a secret. When Chris does figure out where his friend is hiding, everything comes together, as Win deflects his controlling father and sets out to make a life of his own. Chris is a well-drawn character, and readers will care about him. Win is naturally a puzzle-angry, and fighting to become himself. The story moves quickly and will easily draw in readers. Though appearing to be a mystery, it is actually a cross-country personal quest, built on vignettes of realistic encounters along the way, like Ellen Wittlinger's Zigzag (S & S, 2003).-Diane P. Tuccillo, Fort Collins Regional Library District, CO