Four teenagers stumble on a toxic waste spill but nobody
will believe them because they come from a home for
troubled youngsters....
This great adventure for young adults starts slowly with
the teens distrustful of one another and the world in
general. Gemma Stone uses her digital camera to snap some
men clearing up the nearby creek, wearing waders and heavy
gloves. Next thing she and her pal Mistie are sneaking out
of their halfway house at night when they are chased by two
large men and Mistie vanishes. They are in a rural area
of Oxford, in Oregon, so there are not many places she
could have gone. John and Doris, their guardians, are
thrown off track by the arrival of two men claiming to be
from the Environmental Protection Agency in Portland, but
the teens all instinctively distrust them and manage to
scramble out and search for Mistie. She is found drugged
and tied - but why?
With Mistie in hospital the focus is on Gem and two boys,
Mark and techie Reid, who are each kidnapped and struggle
out of difficult situations; Mark having to swim a creek
while handcuffed and ankle-bound, Gem escaping from a car
at a gas station and running into a crowd of adults who -
unexpectedly to her - protect her and call for aid. With
repeated kidnappings the police suddenly have to take these
supposed juvenile delinquents seriously, but the teens have
by now bonded together and prove better than anyone at
figuring out what is going on and why.
GEM STONE is a positive story about finding oneself through
difficulties, and learning to work with other people. Dale
Mayer has also written 'Dangerous Designs' about a
rebellious girl who finds an ensorcelled pencil, which may
encourage readers to switch between fantasy and
contemporary fiction. I preferred GEM STONE of the two,
partly because I liked the characters better, and if you
know a teen who only reads about celebrities and fairytale
weddings, this could be just the book they need.
A juvie kid trying to stay on the right path stumbles
into trouble...
Gemma takes her camera everywhere. From juvie hall to a
halfway home, the new hobby gives her a focus she'd never
had before and... hope in a future. Until she takes
pictures of something that could get her killed.
And not just her...after she and another juvie girl are
chased by a stranger to the halfway home that same night,
the other girl goes missing and Gemma knows she needs help.
But who can she trust?
Not the authorities that's for sure. Trusting them is
impossible for a girl with her damaged history, and
besides, who cares about a troubled kid...especially when
trouble just naturally seems to find her.
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