Ben Silver loves to make homemade movies and write about detectives stopping crime. But when his parents take Ben and his sister, Olive, on a sudden vacation to his grandfather's abandoned cabin, he finds himself in the middle of his own real-life mystery. His parents dodge Ben's questions and start acting increasingly strange (they change their appearance and drive away from a police officer), but he is determined to find out what is going on. When he learns that millions of dollars have been accidentally deposited into his parents' account and they took off with it, Ben knows something bad is about to happen and he has to protect his sister. Ben's father is gruff and abusive, and Ben learns to stand up for himself by the end of the tale. While some of the details are not well developed and the story ends a bit abruptly, middle-grade readers who enjoy suspenseful tales are sure to be the prime audience for this part-survival, part-mystery novel.

On the run from police, twelve-year-old Ben's parents leave him and younger sister Olive on their own in a cabin in the Australian bush. Ben finds a copy of My Side of the Mountain, appropriate--and useful--reading since he and Olive are now in the midst of their own survival drama. The third-person narrative effectively laces the propulsive survival story with ethical questions.

Gr 5-8 The most adventure Ben sees on a daily basis is in the stop-motion movies he makes alone in his room, and that's the way he likes it. However, his safe, sedentary life is altered when Ben's parents whisk him and his sister away on a road trip to an isolated cabin in the woods. His parents claim they are on vacation, but Ben begins to think they are on the lam. He pieces together clues to discover that millions of dollars were mistakenly deposited into his parents' bank account, and they've chosen to run off with it. He is torn between turning in his parents to the authorities, thereby ending the misery of being on the run, and staying loyal to them, thereby seeing if money (even if stolen) can indeed buy happiness. This is an adventure story with broad appeal, from high-speed police chases, to wilderness survival. There are a number of extended, suspenseful scenes, including one in which the boy and his sister must survive on their own in the woods for several days. Ben is a well-developed, sympathetic character, grappling with a cruel father, weight problems, and evolving confusion about his place in his family, with age-appropriate confusion and insecurity. VERDICT This is a story that will appeal to avid consumers of adventure stories and reluctant readers alike. Jenna Lanterman, formerly at The Calhoun School and Mary McDowell Friends School, New York City