Runner by Carl Deuker (Realistic Fiction )

A 15 year old boy named Chase, lives with his father on his house boat on the marina in Seattle, Washington. His dad was always drunk and smoking when he got home from his part time jobs and his mom left when he was a kid. Chase worked a part time job for a restaurant washing dishes. Chance runs every morning down at the marina. One day while running a man offers Chance a way to make easy money by delivering packages.  Chance accepts even though he doesn't the guy because he needs the money. The man tells him that up on the beach he is to check between the two rocks to get the package. He is to put the package in a certain mailbox. The man meets up with Chase at the end of each week and gives him an envelope of cash. Every month Chase gives money to his dad to pay the bill. After a while the man says that there will be a new type of package in the rocks.  When you see it, he is to bring it back to his boat until someone picks it up. The man said he will just know which box it is. One day he went to the rocks and saw a red package, so he assumed that must be the one and brought it back to his boat.  The package was soft and odorless. Chase is thinking that there are drugs in the package but is more concerned with making money.

I liked the book because it was adventurous and exciting to see how he maneuvers between his lies for his job. At some points I felt scared because I didn't know what was going to happen to him in certain situations. In the beginning when he was hired for the job, I didn't know why he accepted because he knew what was happening in the city. The job seemed too good to be true. In the middle of his job I wanted him to tell his dad and ask for advice of what he should do. I don't think he should have quit his job as a dishwasher because he was doing well. Sometimes making money isn't worth the outcome and consequences.  He could have gone to jail many times.  He was always paranoid that he could have been caught. He got very lucky that no cops learned what he was doing. In some point in the book, it said there were terrorists in Seattle, so I was thinking maybe it was bomb. He looked up plastic explosives and it seemed the same as how he described the package. Sometimes in life it's hard to make the right decisions when the result is super good, like making so much money.

Reviewed by Michael C. Grade 7