THE LAST GREAT GETAWAY OF THE WATER BALLOON BOYS

Why does Charlie ask Leo’s girlfriend, Tessa, to the prom when he knows Tessa is just going to tell Leo? Why does Jake, Charlie’s ex–best friend, suddenly decide to rescue Charlie from Leo and his buddies? Why does Jake steal the principal’s cherry-red ’67 Mustang? Why does Charlie, self-described “straight-A student and grade-A geek,” impulsively jump into the stolen car? Why is Jake determined to drive more than 1,000 miles to deliver to his dad a portrait he made of him? Why does Charlie eschew all common sense and join him? “There are moments when your life spins on a wheel,” Charlie reflects, “when the choices you make forever change the person you are and the person you will become.” A sensible-seeming observation, but people usually have reasons for the choices they make. Unfortunately, Carter does not reveal the reasons for the choices these characters make. Lots of things happen—hitching rides, meeting strange girls, eluding the police, smoking pot—in this frantically paced debut, but, to use Charlie’s own language, it all seems “surreal.” None of it makes a whole lot of sense. (Fiction. 12 & up)