Runner by Carl Deucker Grades 7+ 224 pages Graphia April 2007 Paperback     Chance Taylor doesn’t look any different from a hundred other high school seniors. He is clean-cut, wears ordinary clothes, is occasionally late to class and doesn’t go out for sports or after-school activities. Chance is, however, very different from most of his classmates, because Chance lives on a sailboat with an alcoholic father, and he hasn’t seen his mother since she left him there one night soon after the divorce. Chance has to work weekends washing dishes at a restaurant to help his father cover the moorage fee for the boat. He knows that they are just one step away from being homeless, and that he cannot count on his father to keep a steady job. When the fat guy at the marina offers Chance a job, the temptation is just too great. Chance will just continue to run along the beach, as he does almost every day, but now he will be picking up and delivering a package for the marina boss. He knows that what he is doing can get him in trouble, but it seems to Chance that the risk is worth the payment. What he doesn’t know is that the marina boss is not the only one watching him - and that if things don’t work out, Chance will not be the only one hurt. This is a great young adult story about relationships, character and stereotypes. The publisher includes a brief interview with the author, discussing his choices for this particular story.     web reviews   Joyce Rice/2010 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)