This Is Not a Drill
by:
Beck McDowell (author)
Two teens try to save a class of first-graders from a gun-wielding soldier suffering from PTSD When high school seniors Emery and Jake are taken hostage in the classroom where they tutor, they must work together to calm both the terrified children and the gunman threatening them--a task made even...
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Two teens try to save a class of first-graders from a gun-wielding soldier suffering from PTSD When high school seniors Emery and Jake are taken hostage in the classroom where they tutor, they must work together to calm both the terrified children and the gunman threatening them--a task made even more difficult by their recent break-up. Brian Stutts, a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq, uses deadly force when he's denied access to his son because of a custody battle. The children's fate is in the hands of the two teens, each recovering from great loss, who now must reestablish trust in a relationship damaged by betrayal. Told through Emery and Jake's alternating viewpoints, this gripping novel features characters teens will identify with and explores the often-hidden damages of war.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780399257940 (0399257942)
Publish date: October 25th 2012
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Pages no: 224
Edition language: English
Category:
Young Adult,
Adventure,
Teen,
Survival,
Realistic Fiction,
War,
Military,
Contemporary,
High School,
Suspense,
Young Adult Contemporary
This book works on lots of different levels. There's the broken relationship between Jake and Emery. There's the health issues that people keep hidden. There's the courage the teenagers find when they are forced to care for 18 small children. And there's what happens to soldiers when they return...
2.5 starsToo short for such a complicated subject, and while it was a heavy one for YA, sometimes it felt like the reader was being talked down to. Still, couldn't put it down until I finished it, and I really liked Emery, Jake and the kids.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.Jake and Emery are seniors who tutor first graders. One day, the father of one of the kids comes in demanding to take his kid. Since he has to go through the office and all that to take his son out, he opts to pull out a gun and take the entire c...
In "This is Not a Drill" by Beck McDowell, readers are allowed into the minds of two high school students who are volunteering in a classroom when a crazed parent with a gun holds the young students, the high school students and the teacher hostage.The whole book takes place during the hostage situa...
You can read all of my reviews at Alluring Reads.I always get nervous going into a short novel about whether or not there will be enough substance packed in for me to come to care about the characters and the events of the story. Beck McDowell proved that worry completely unfounded; in 224 pages she...