Cooney, Caroline B. The Terrorist. New York: Scholastic Press. 1997. ISBN 0590228536
AWARDS:
ABA Pick of the List
ALA Quik Pik
Texas Lone Star Award
SUMMARY: Billy Williams and his family have recently moved to London because his father’s job has transferred him there. Billy and his sister Laura attend an international school which educates students from all over the world. Billy is headed to school one day when a stranger hands him a package. It is a bomb and Billy dies in the explosion. His family learns that it was a terrorist attack and his sister Laura decides she will find his killer.
She suddenly is befriended by a school girl, Jehran. When she gains Laura’s friendship, she reveals that she needs to leave the country because her brother has given her to a 54 year old man, as his new bride. She insists that Laura use Billy’s passport to help her get to New York and away from her brother. Laura is sympathetic and agrees.
The plan is for Laura to fly with Jehran to New York and then Laura can fly back alone to London. They set up the plan and Laura almost gets on the plane, until she realizes that Jehran has used her to get out of London. Jehran had Billy killed by her terrorist group so she could use his passport to gain freedom. After a scuffle, Jehran is caught, but later disappears and is never seen again. Laura and her family go back to America. They go on with their lives, but Billy’s killer is never punished.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: This mystery story starts with excitement and ends with excitement as well. We spend the first chapter falling in love with Billy Williams. He is such a great character and it is a shame that he is gone so suddenly. I thought that the author developed the character very successfully in the first few chapters. You feel sad about his fate. The character Laura, is believable and sympathetic. We root for her to be successful in her search because she feels like we would feel if it happened to our family.
Jehran is an excellent villain. Befriending her victim’s sister, and actually getting Laura to help her, is a great plot twist. The fact that there is no punishment for Billy’s killer, was a big disappointment for me. I disliked the ending, but it is believable. How many times does a killer walk free in our world today?
The setting is important because an international setting was essential for the story. England and the international school are essential for the plot because it brings all these different cultures together. If not for the family being American, Jehran would have never seen them as a means to get her to America. England is important to the story because this is where many terrorist groups develop and carry out their attacks. This also makes it believable that the killer’s attack is not as big a priority to law enforcement as it would be in America. England deals with attacks like these all the time.
This is an exciting and well written story. I would recommend it to any teenager. It is face-paced which makes it perfect for reluctant readers.
REVIEWS:
Publishers Weekly Review:
“An American girl living in London loses her younger brother due to a terrorist bombing and seeks revenge. "Thought-provoking as well as a just plain good read," said PW.”
School Library Journal Review:
“A provocative look at an American family living abroad, destroyed by a not-so-random act of violence. Billy, 11, a brash but lovable all-American boy, accepts a package from a stranger in a London subway station and becomes the victim of a bomb. His grieving 16-year-old sister is obsessed with capturing the unknown terrorist. An average student at the London International Academy, she alienates her circle of friends as she begins to suspect each of them. Laura, the typical Cooney heroine, is rather self-centered, plodding through life until tested by trauma. She and her family play the roles of well-meaning, but rather ignorant Americans, oblivious of the world in which they live. Plausibility takes a back seat to plot toward the end as Laura neatly places herself in the hands of the cold-hearted villain. Not since Barbara Parks’ Mick Harte Was Here (Knopf, 1995) has a deceased sibling been so carefully memorialized. Indeed, readers come to know the short-lived Billy better than many of the other characters, including the vaguely draw villain, whose motivation is never really clear. Cynicism rather than honor is the victor at the tale's conclusion; it ends not with a bang, but a whimper. While this book is not as gut-wrenchingly terrifying as Robert Cormier's After the First Death (Pantheon, 1979), Cooney's fans will find it more accessible and even harder to put down.?”
RESOURCES:
Caroline Cooney Website.
TeenReads Website. Caroline Cooney Interview.
Image by Google Images.
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