The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline B. Cooney

She often organizes what she calls a 'plotting game,' in which students work together to create plots for stories. To keep her stories realistic, Caroline visits many schools outside of her area, learning more about teenagers all the time. 'In a suspense novel, you can count on action.'

Suspense novels are her favorites to read and write. She began to sell stories to Seventeen magazine and soon after began writing books. When her children were young, Caroline started writing books for young people - with remarkable results. I started writing then and never stopped!' 'He used to rip off covers from The New Yorker and pass them around and make us write a short story on whichever cover we got. (Apr.Caroline Cooney knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a writer when 'the best teacher I ever had in my life' made writing her main focus. Cooney's trademark staccato delivery keeps the pages turning.

Though at times this account reads like the MTV version of the events (e.g., glancing over such important events as the death of Mercy's Indian father), the immediacy of Mercy's dilemma comes through despite its historical distance. Portrayed mostly as rigid, angry and dogmatic, the Puritans contrast poorly with the generally kind and commonsensical Indians, and Mercy's final choice is thus compelling. Just how much her perspective broadens can be measured by the fact that, in addition to adopting many Indian ways, Mercy can find something sacred and comforting in the Catholic mass a rite she was raised to believe led straight to eternal damnation. Uncertain whether she will be adopted by the Mohawk who captured her or whether the English will pay the ransom that would allow her to return to Massachusetts, Mercy struggles to balance loyalty to her own family and traditions with a growing appreciation for the Kahnawake way of life. Some of the novel's most riveting chapters describe the difficult winter trek that takes them 300 miles north to Canada, where Mercy settles into life in a traditional Indian village near Montreal. After their village is burned and many of its residents killed, Mercy and more than 100 other settlers are taken prisoner by the Kahnawake Mohawk, who have been converted to Catholicism by the French.

Based on actual events, this latest offering from the accomplished Cooney (The Face on the Milk Carton Driver's Ed) is a gripping and thought-provoking account of the 1704 Indian raid on the English settlement of Deerfield, Mass.

The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline B. Cooney