Blink & Caution

by Tim Wynne-Jones

Runaway Blink has been living on the streets for months when he stumbles onto the... read more

Runaway Blink has been living on the streets for months when he stumbles onto the staged kidnapping of a wealthy businessman at the swanky hotel where he was stealing breakfast and finds himself in possession of the “victim’s” cell phone. Runaway Caution has been living with a controlling drug dealer and is now attempting to escape. Tim Wynne-Jones adroitly moves back and forth between two compelling individual stories, blending them into a single and mesmerizing whole as the two teens eventually meet on a train. Caution is trying to get away from Toronto, while Blink is on the trail of the businessman, persuaded by the man’s teenage daughter—whom Blink called to provide assurance her father was okay—to find out if he’s at the remote retreat owned by his company. Blink and Caution form an alliance and find themselves on the trail of a crime that didn’t happen but that masks a real crime involving corporate greed. As they journey together, trust, friendship—and something more—begin to form, enabling them to not only reveal dimensions of their personal histories but also to begin a journey of healing. Told in two distinct narrative styles (an insightful and darkly funny second-person voice for Blink, and a third-person voice for Caution), this tense, suspense-filled novel starts out gritty but ends with two teens who believed they had nowhere to turn finding the courage to confront their pasts. In doing so, they gain a sense of hope for their futures. (Age 13 and older)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2012

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