RAYMOND

by Mark Geller ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1988

A cocky seventh grader flees from an abusive father, narrowly escaping potentially dangerous situations along the way. A physical-education teacher reports the welts on Raymond's back to the school nurse; soon the authorities are questioning the family, and his father's anger catapults Raymond into flight. After failing to earn bus fare by delivering an unidentified package (probably drugs), he takes money from his mother's savings and climbs aboard the bus to Milwaukee, where his older sister lives. On a stopover in Chicago, a man cons him out of his bus ticket, but a watchful grandmother sends him home--where he finds his mother recovering from a beating. Raymond persuades his mother to take the car and flee with him to Milwaukee, but halfway there she decides to return alone to her husband--although shortly thereafter she will change her mind yet again and turns in the direction of her daughter and son. Told in terse vignettes that give a powerful sense of immediacy, the story spends little time on character development or explanations about abusive parents. Most young readers will be caught up in the tension and quickly turn the pages to see if Raymond escapes.

Pub Date: July 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 89

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1988

Categories: CHILDREN'S