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A review by seshat59
The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix
3.0
The Strangers is a middle grade contemporary that is best read without any prior knowledge other than the blurb. I won’t spoil anything significant.
The story begins with the kidnapping of three children with the same names and birthdates as our three protagonists, twelve year old Chess, ten year old Emma, and eight year old Finn. The kidnapping makes their mother behave strangely, and the next day she abruptly leaves on a business trip. She has them stay with a virtual stranger and her middle school aged daughter Natalie. Their mother’s strange behavior and more bizarre texts lead the kids to look for clues around their house, where they find evidence that their mom does not plan to return. This leads to a coded letter and clues that lead to an abrupt genre twist — but the evidence was there if you were paying attention, and savvy readers will deduce it ahead of time.
The text does seem heavy handed for middle grade but with the world as it is, I think they can handle it. With the real world as it is, the motto of love and logic winning the day doesn’t seem super optimistic to me but okay. Hope for the win.
The story begins with the kidnapping of three children with the same names and birthdates as our three protagonists, twelve year old Chess, ten year old Emma, and eight year old Finn. The kidnapping makes their mother behave strangely, and the next day she abruptly leaves on a business trip. She has them stay with a virtual stranger and her middle school aged daughter Natalie. Their mother’s strange behavior and more bizarre texts lead the kids to look for clues around their house, where they find evidence that their mom does not plan to return. This leads to a coded letter and clues that lead to an abrupt genre twist — but the evidence was there if you were paying attention, and savvy readers will deduce it ahead of time.
The text does seem heavy handed for middle grade but with the world as it is, I think they can handle it. With the real world as it is, the motto of love and logic winning the day doesn’t seem super optimistic to me but okay. Hope for the win.