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“ Reviewed by Steph for TeensReadToo.com
TeensReadToo.com wrote this review Friday, July 17 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The mystery of Joseph Davidson's street has always been about his elusive neighbor, Tom Leyton. Joseph has always liked Tom's amiable sister, Caroline, but Tom was just weird. He rarely came out of his house. Not much was known about Tom Leyton.
That all changed when Joseph got a portrait assignment in his art class at school. Joseph suddenly found himself in the Leyton household drawing none other than Tom. The two bonded over Tom's silkworms and became friends. The mysteries of Tom Leyton were revealed once and for all to Joseph during these drawing sessions.
Joseph found the answers to other mysteries as well, such as The Running Man who had been haunting Joseph's life for years.
This book is all about learning to accept other people, even if they are different. Everyone has their own story, and some stories don't have happy endings. Joseph discovers this and more through his friendship with Tom.
This book is an excellent read. The reader is hooked from page one. Many mysteries are presented to capture the reader until the very end. Bauer has a knack for getting the reader to feel things right along with the main character, Joseph. This good read is recommended for anyone willing to learn a life lesson - never judge a book by its cover!”
“This book is about the power of relationships and the rewards of taking risks with people whom we would otherwise write off. In this case, Joseph, a teenager, uses his school art project to get to know the mythologised and somewhat scary man who lives a reclusive life next door. In this novel, no-one lives without complex relationships and so the central relationship becomes the core around which those others ones gain meaning. The motif of the silk worm and its development into a metaphor for the reclusive man next door, pulls everything together in quite a meaningful and beautiful way. It forces us to ask what beauty might be woven inside the cocoons in which some people hide. ”
Louisa M wrote this review Saturday, May 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This is an excellent book about a boy coming of age, dealing with childhood fears and the fearful reality that surrounds him.
Raymond E wrote this review Thursday, August 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I would recommend this for any teenager!”
“Joseph Davidson is a shy and artistic boy. So naturally, when he’s given a school assignment to make a portrait, he is unsure of whom he wants his subject to be. So, he never expects to pick him mysterious neighbor, Tom Leyton. At first, he tells Caroline, the sister or Tom Leyton who first suggested Tom as the subject, that he will think about it. But when another neighbor thinks that Joseph would be too afraid, he takes up the challenge. Gradually, Joseph spends more and more time with Tom and gets to know him. Tom at first is very cold and reclusive and doesn’t respond much to Tom. But soon, he opens up, and Joseph and Tom’s meetings are spent taking care of Tom’s silk worms more than working on the portrait. But Tom’s eyes are still stony and cold; Joseph feels that he cannot capture Tom’s true self until he can see what’s really behind Tom’s eyes. The Running Man is set up a little like The Luxe by Anna Godbersen in that it begins with a funeral and then flashes back to the events before it. However, the two stories are extremely different, as one could expect. The Running Man goes much deeper and is not filled with gossip about high society; rather, rumors circulate about Joseph’s mysterious neighbor Tom. In some ways, this reminded me of Boo Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird, because Tom and Boo are so similar in many ways. The Running Man was a beautiful and touching story. It’s about the tentative friendship between two people who need each other. It’s also one of those deep books filled with metaphors that can seem confusing at first but are explained. It’s about the miracles that friends provide for each other and conquering the demons in your past. It’s about reaching out to others who need you and making peace with your life. I recommend this novel to readers who are up to a thought-provoking read. While The Running Man is not full of excitement or suspense and is more of an emotional novel, readers will not be disappointed. This book has already been published by Scholastic, but it will be published again by HarperTeen in July. reposted from http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com”
The Book Muncher wrote this review Tuesday, April 29 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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