His mother and father are separated, his father’s drinking problem finally driving him away from the family. In fact, Martin’s life stinks all around. Bloor an excellent narrator who, after reading the first chapter, held the students rapt and led our desire to continue reading more about John Martin Conway, a seemingly average boy on scholarship to an exclusive preparatory school.Īt All Souls Preparatory School, Martin is bullied and unhappy. A deep booming voice and broad smile made Mr. Edward Bloor read the first chapter of London Calling to my middle school students. (Oct.I had the great fortune of hearing Mr. Deftly constructed, this is as riveting as it is thought-provoking. Bloor, whose gimlet-eyed view of modern society has occasionally pushed his narratives to extremes, reigns in the satire to concoct a plausible-enough scenario of the not-too-distant future, adding just the right measure of consciousness-raising in the dialogue between Charity and a teenage abductor. Pacing the narrative so readers can feel the clock ticking, the author fills in Charity's back story-the ironic death of her mother to skin cancer, her days at “satschool,” where education comes beamed in from an elite Manhattan academy, her home run by Albert and Victoria, the butler and maid whose very names are regulated by Royal Domestic Services. Within 24 hours, her parents will empty their home vault of its currency, and she will be freed. Because child-snatching is a major growth industry in South Florida, Charity has been trained to handle the stress and she knows what should happen. Despite all the precautions within the Meyers' high-security housing development, Charity is kidnapped on New Year's Day 2036-the “taken” of the title, also a chess allusion to a didn't-see-it-coming plot twist. Thirteen-year-old Charity Meyers lives with her father, a dermatologist whose wealth has survived the World Credit Crash, and her stepmother, a noxious “vidscreen” personality. ) shows top form with a gripping novel, set 30 years in the future, that works as both a thriller and a commentary on the dangerously growing gap between America's rich and poor.

Edward bloor books