When Griffin hopped into the Escalade, he thought he’d just made the steal of a lifetime. Who leaves the keys to their expensive SUV in the car while they’re in the store? But when Griffin hears the shuffling around in the back seat and sees the face of 16-year-old Cheyenne Wilder staring back at him, he realizes he’s in a heck of a lot more trouble than he could even imagine.

Until he learns that Cheyenne is blind and cannot see who has taken her and the car far away from her step mother, her father (who just happens to be a big wig at Nike), and the shopping center where her step mother was picking up the medicine Cheyenne sorely needed to combat the pneumonia plaguing her.

April Henry’s Girl, Stolen reminded me a lot of the Janie series by Caroline B. Cooney, if for no other reason than the missing girl aspect. This was a very fast paced read, with alternating perspectives in each chapter. Although this technique is jarring at first since it’s not entirely clear who is narrating at first, it becomes clearer and clearer throughout the story and ultimately becomes what makes this story work so well. We get to see how Cheyenne manages to use her other senses to figure out where she is and who her captors are and we get to see Griffin and his family come to terms with what has happened.

Griffin as a character is much more complex than I initially gave him credit for. While he struck me as the guy after an easy steal, the story unravels such that Griffin is actually a product of an unfortunate upbringing, and he feels absolutely terrible for what he’s done to Cheyenne. His father and brother, on the other hand, are content in torturing the girl; Griffin instead feels horrible and does what he can to make the worst situation easier for Cheyenne. Where his father and brother are dead set on milking the accidental abduction as a kidnapping for ransom, Griffin is instead interested in just getting Cheyenne back to her family safely so she can get the medicine she needs to feel better. He doesn’t want the blood on his hands.

Cheyenne’s perspective was just as compelling for me. As readers, we know she’s blind, and we know through the reading that she relies heavily on her other senses to gauge where she is. Where Griffin’s family thinks she’s also deaf, it’s ultimately her superior hearing skills and her memory that aids in her figuring out where she is and the names of those holding her hostage.

April Henry’s newest title will appeal to fans of fast paced, realistic reads. This is the kind of book I’d hand to fans of Caroline B. Cooney, as well as those who like stories about those with disabilities. Cheyenne’s a strong willed character with a desire to survive, and I think she’s quite an inspiring character at that. The modern setting will appeal, too, to readers who are interested in the real stories that play out like this every day. Although the last chapter of this book was quite disappointing for me, as it felt quite rushed and a little out of the blue for this title, the book itself had just enough happenstance to feel quite realistic. There’s a little bit in the way of language and situations involving violence, so it’s probably best a read for older middle school and high school students.

* Review copy picked up at the PLA conference.