Right Behind You by Gail Giles

Gail Giles’ book, Right Behind You, is a tragic story with a happy ending. It is a fictional book but I am sure this situation has happened before. What this book taught me was there is always another side to the story. Kip, the main character of the book, kills another child with fire. The book talks about his time in a mental hospital and fighting the reality of what he did. Once he does get past that, he decides to start fresh and get a new life. He then has the high school life many kids desire. He is the popular, good looking jock with the pretty girlfriend and popular friends. Yet Kip still has trouble getting beyond his past life. He feels he does not deserve this and that feeling is what I liked about the book. The author did give away his happy ending right there. She made the character really fight for his freedom and made him realize he deserved to be happy. One day he told everyone what he had done and his perfect life was gone. He then had to start again and believe what he did was in the past and it was a mistake. That made me really like this book. It is just like in the movies when you think the happy ending is coming and then something bad happens and you think everything is done. But then you see the light in the tunnel. The author took her time to show the hardships Kip’s family had and what he went through to get to that happy ending. Plus, the whole plot is great. It is a book about something we do not hear about often and it made me realize when things like this happen maybe we should be more understanding.

Elizabeth M.

Recommended Reading: Escape!

Stories about teenagers held against their wills trying to escape before it's too late.

F Bodeen,S 
Bodeen, S. A. The Compound.
When a nuclear war starts, Eli's billionaire father rushes his family in into their underground compound. They have everything they need to survive until it is safe to go above ground again. But when things start to go wrong, Eli realizes the real danger is not just on the surface but within his own family.

F Dashner,J
Dashner, James. The Maze Runner.
When Thomas wakes up on the lift, all he can remember is his first name. When the doors open, he finds himself in a huge maze with stone walls called the Glade. He is surrounded by a group of boys his own age who have a similar story. Every 30 days a new boy arrives, but no one has ever escaped the Glades.

F Henry,A
Henry, April. Shock Point.
When Cassie finds out that her psychiatrist stepfather Rick has been illegally prescribing an experimental drug to teen patients who have then committed suicide. To silence her, Rick commits her to a sadistic boot camp for troubled teen in Mexico called Peaceful Cove.  Even if she can escape the brutal camp, she has to get through the Mexican desert and get back to Oregon. And even then, who will believe her story?

F Smith,A
Smith, Alexander Gordon. Lockdown: Escape from Furnace.
Furnace Penitentiary is the world's most secure youth prison. It is a mile underground and its inmates are all serving life sentences. The guards and the other inmates are sadistic, but they aren't the worst things about the prison. Alex Sawyer is a criminal, but he has been falsely imprisoned for murder. Together, with a group of other innocent kids and some cold blooded killers, Alex plans a dangerous escape.

 F Strasser,T
Strasser, Todd. Boot Camp.
Harmony Lake is a boot camp for troubled teens and supposedly a godsend for desperate parents.  Like all kids at the camp, Garrett is taken in the middle of the night. He knows that some of the kids deserve there, but when he is beaten and subjected to psychological abuse, he knows he has to try to escape at all costs before it is too late.