{Tour Stop} Trapped by Michael Northrop **REVIEW & GIVEAWAY**

Thanks for stopping by my stop on the Trapped my Michael Northrop blog

tour!!  I was psyched to be asked to be a part of this and am super eager 

to let you guys in on this little piece of awesome!!!!!! 

The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week. That for those in its path, it would become not just a matter of keeping warm, but of staying alive. . . .
Scotty and his friends Pete and Jason are among the last seven kids at their high school waiting to get picked up that day, and they soon realize that no one is coming for them. Still, it doesn't seem so bad to spend the night at school, especially when distractingly hot Krista and Julie are sleeping just down the hall. But then the power goes out, then the heat. The pipes freeze, and the roof shudders. As the days add up, the snow piles higher, and the empty halls grow colder and darker, the mounting pressure forces a devastating decision. . . .

Release Date: February 1st 2011 

Published By:  Scholastic Press

Review Copy: Paperback, 232

(copy provided by publisher)

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Review

  Where has this book been hiding?!  Seriously I am unsure as to why this gem has not been more widely talked about!!  I mean it was hard to put this down and I mean that quite literally.  I walked around reading it, did laundry single handed so I didn't have to put it down and drank lots of coffee in place of meals that I was too involved in the book to make.  The only time I put it down was when I left the house.  Didn't help that it started to snow as I read it.  Ya, over active imagination + actual snowfall while reading this does keep you moving because you want to know it all ends well.

  The story was both interesting and eerie.  When a huge storm blows in and school closes early some get left behind.  Seven students and one teacher are stuck in the school as the snow piles up.  And piles up is not an exaggeration by any means.  The snow reaches the second story windows!  I would be loosing my mind.  This is only made worse by the fact that their cell phones won't work, the power goes out an no one seems to be coming for them.  Their only saving grace is that they are in a high school.  High Schools have supplies that are needed like food, blankets and other things that teens need to survive.  I worried that a few of the kids would go all Lord of the Flies on he others but for the most part they seemed to work together.

  Scotty the main voice in this book is really a lot more laid back than I had expected.  At first I thought he would be a lot more take charge but when it comes down to it he really just goes with the flow.  This was both good and bad for me.  As I said I expected him to be more take charge and I was disappointed a few times with his.  Though his passive behaviour did help certain circumstances.  He was also the voice of reason at times though and this is when the passive ways paid off.    When it comes to things like lighting a fire inside the school and food Scotty was the one to make people stop and think before they acted.  Basically all in all his narration and look into the horrifying incident was interesting.

  The other characters were all so different, yet the band of misfits that they created worked.  Basically you had everyone from the bad boy to the loner to the popular girls.  A little of everything in between.  Though Elijah seriously freaked me out for awhile.  He gave me goosebumps and a couple of times I thought him and Les were "planning" something.  What they were planning I really don't know but I was positive there was going to be something big with them.  There was also some awkward moments because of the girls.  You can't just throw 5 guys (5 TEENAGE guys) with these beautiful girls and not expect a certain amount of tension.  Despite everything I grew kind of attached to each of the characters for their individuality and the loss that they suffered stuck me as well.  I felt I knew each one about as well as they knew each other in the end.  Which may not have been close but you had a better idea of exactly who they were.

  The real star though was the storm.  I know that sounds crazy but it kind of had a mind of its own as well.  Micheal did a marvelous job at portraying just how vicious these storms can be.  Many places get hit with tornadoes, hurricanes and earth quakes but snow storms are seriously underrated as far as disasters go.  Though in this book the terrifying possibility is brought to life and the fact that not everyone makes it only makes it more real.  The storm starts as any other but quickly shows its full terror.  Then like any good scare there is those moments where you feel hope because things slow down but then things come back ten fold to get you.

  This book seriously had me addicted.  Its only real downfall for me was the ending.  I just felt it could have been a little more than it was.  Basically it was one of the more abrupt endings I have seen but it also leaves it open for what you think should happen.  Not everyone's cup of tea but the book as a whole makes up for it.  There is tension, hope, fear and loss all throughout and there are times that you believe every moment could be their last.  It wasn't like anything I have read lately but it presented a scary possibility that left me shivering! 

Quotes

I'd never seen this much snow fall this fast.  But I'd never heard of a snowplow getting stuck in the snow either.  It was like a fish drowning in water: Snow was its element, what it was made for.

The day hadn't been all that bad.  I mean, yeah, there was the whole crapping-in-a-pudding-can thing, and it was nearly as cold inside now, but there'd been encouraging things too.

If this was a movie, this is the point where Krista would've leaned over and kissed me.  "For luck," she would've said, like Princess Leia in Star Wars.  But she didn't.  I think you've figured out by now that this isn't about boy-gets-girl.  It's about survival.

About the Author

Michael Northrop is the author of two YA novels—Gentlemen, one of the American Library Association's "Best Books for Young Adults" for 2010, and Trapped, a Spring 2011 Indie Next List selection—and the new middle grade novel Plunked. He spent 12 years chasing stories at Sports Illustrated Kids, the last five as baseball editor. His articles and stories have been published widely.

Connect with Michael Northrop:

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