Book Review: Found

Synopsis

Thirteen-year-old Jonah, Chip, and Jonah’s sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere, and people who seem to appear and disappear at will.

Comments

There is quite a bit about adoption and the emotions kids may have around that, including non-adopted siblings.  There is some disturbing and social content that 9 year-olds and young 10 year-olds may not be comfortable with.

Language

None, aside from ‘holy crap’ [?]

Sexual Content

‘The basketball players get all the chicks.’ ‘Is she playing hard to get?’ ‘hitting on’ someone

Drugs/Alcohol

A kid wonders if a soda a man gave him is ‘laced with a dangerous narcotic’.

Violence/Disturbing

Kid worries that he will be kidnapped. Kid recalls almost being carried off by a riptide. Teens are shown graphic pictures from history; soldiers ‘ran swords through infants, bodies fell into pits dug to bury the living with the dead…hail of gunfire raining down on children.’ Futuristic weapons and a kind of Taser are used on people, a threat to drop bombs on their house, bad guy tells kids he’ll tell their parents they all died and kidnap them.

Social/Family

Some issues around adoption. Adopted child angry parents didn’t tell him. ‘birth parents’ vs. ‘real parents’. Adopted child often told ‘we’re so lucky to get you’ and their non-adopted child thinks, ‘weren’t you lucky to get me, too?’  Kid has to pick which parent he is going to live with when is parents divorce, ‘it was awful’. A kid refers to ‘clearing his browsing history’ so people don’t know what websites he’s been to. ‘They think of themselves as 21st century Americans. They’re selfish. Spoiled. Overprivileged…They aren’t capable of sacrifice.

Religion/Spiritual

Parents ‘make their kids go to church’.