Runner (Paperback)
Suspenseful, fast-paced, and poignant, this novel avoids easy answers as it examines issues of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage, and the lives of privilege and poverty.
Carl Deuker is a celebrated author of “top-flight sports writing matched to uncommonly perceptive coming-of-age stories” (Kirkus Reviews). He describes his younger self as a classic second-stringer: “I was too slow and too short for basketball; I was too small for football, a little too chicken to hang in there against the best fastballs. So, by my senior year the only sport I was still playing was golf.” He was a teacher for many years in the Seattle area, where he now lives with his wife.
carldeuker.ag-sites.net/bio.htm
"The sports and suspenseful action will easily draw readers, as will the gripping adventure’s deeper issues of crime, class, ineffectual parents, and a teen’s questions about his uncertain future." Booklist, ALA
"Writing in a fast-paced, action-packed, but at the same time reflective style, Deuker uses fewer sports scenes than in his previous novels, and instead uses running as a hook to entice readers into a perceptive coming-of-age novel." School Library Journal
"Fast-paced and suspenseful." Horn Book —