Jump the Cracks

March 31, 2008
DeKeyser’s debut novel begins with a sticky moral dilemma that will have readers questioning what they would do under similar circumstances. On the train to New York City to visit her father, 15-year-old Victoria sees a mother abandon her toddler son in the bathroom and rush off to meet the boyfriend she’s been talking to on her cell phone. At that moment, Victoria decides to take the boy and find him a home—something she herself has been longing for since her parents’ recent divorce. Events quickly spiral out of control: the police want Victoria on kidnapping charges and the boyfriend, too, is after her—believing she stole his drug money. DeKeyser convincingly portrays Victoria’s struggle to understand what happened to her once-perfect family and to protect the small boy. But the other characters seem like stereotypes: the down-on-her-luck single mom, the well-meaning but absent father, the scary drug-dealing boyfriend (at one point he calls Victoria on her cell: “I want my money without any funny stuff, or the kid ends up in the river”). The cartoon quality of the villain undercuts everything else. Ages 13-up.

September 1, 2008
Gr 8 Up-Frustrated by her parents' divorce two years earlier, 15-year-old Victoria convinces her mother to let her travel from Connecticut to stay in New York with her father for the summer. She witnesses a teen speaking harshly to her toddler son and sees her leave him in the train's bathroom. Victoria watches as the young woman and a man argue on the platform. Before she knows it, Victoria has the toddler in her possession and is barreling past her stop. She begins with the best of intentions to protect the child from an abusive situation, but, without much thought, she takes the boy, whom she calls Wills, on a train ride to Georgia. Victoria finds a large stash of money, hastily stuffed in her backpack by the boy's mother, and begins to receive threatening calls on her cell phone from the man on the platform and worried calls from her father and various police agencies. Victoria must find a way for Wills to be safe and believes that staying on the lam is the best solution. DeKeyser accurately describes the thought process that Victoria goes through as she comes to the realization of what she's done. While at the heart of her choices is her anger over her parents' divorce, the author does not oversimplify the situation. Teens are sure to find this an interesting read."Sarah Krygier, Solano County Library, Fairfield, CA"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2008
Wrestling with feelings of betrayal in the wake of her parents divorce, a teenager, convinced she is a rescuer, kidnaps a roughly handled two-year-old in this flawed but thought-provoking first novel. Mulling over broken promises as she rides the train into New York to visit her father, bitter Victoria sees a young mother leave her bruised child in the bathroom and step out onto the platform to meet a scary-looking dude. The train pulls out, and Victoria finds herself traveling with a lad she dubs William, struggling to care for him and vowing that he wont fall between societys cracks. Then Victoria discovers a wad of moneydrug moneyslipped between her backpack by the boys mom, and learns shes being sought not only by her parents and the police but by others as well. The expected suspenseful chase never materializes. DeKeyser focuses, instead, on Victorias hard-fought inner battles. Consequently, rather than facing physical danger, she comes round to realize that, first, shell have to go back to face the music, and, second, that its naive to think that promises can always be kept. Readers expecting a thriller will be disappointed, but introspective tweeners will find plenty to chew on.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)