Breakout by Kate Messner

I picked up Breakout from my school book fair this year. It was the same book fair that The Unteachables came from, now that I think of it. I was drawn initially to the bright cover, and then the summary on the back sealed the deal for me. I'm always on the lookout for books that might be interesting to recommend to my students, and this one seemed like a good candidate for that. Since summer is my time to read for the upcoming school year, I decided to give it a try next.

Breakout follows several young residents of Wolf Creek, a small town in upstate New York, during a few weeks in June. Two inmates have just escaped from a local maximum security prison and a massive manhunt is underway to find them. The breakout has significantly affected the day-to-day routines in the normally sleepy town; parents won't let their kids play outside, police are setting up roadblocks and searching cars, and reporters from national news stations are everywhere. People are scared and anxious for the inmates to be caught and the search is all anyone can talk about.

Kate Messner uses a mixed media format to convey the events of the story. She uses the letters, poetry, audio transcripts, text messages, and illustrations from a group of students who are assigned to create pieces of writing for a school time capsule project. Their writing both narrates the story of the manhunt and explores their feelings about all the changes taking place in their community because of it. This is a smart strategy that keeps the action of the story moving quickly, and allows the reader to get a sense of multiple perspectives.

The main contributor to the time capsule is a seventh grader named Nora, daughter of the prison superintendent and aspiring reporter. She, together with her best friend Lizzie, create several newspaper-style articles about the manhunt. Another big contributor is Elidee, a new student to the school and one of only two African American students that attend there. She moved to the area because her brother is incarcerated in the prison and her mother wanted to be nearby. She is a nice kid that tries not to make waves, but she desperately misses her old home in New York City and is having trouble adjusting to all the changes in her life. She has to deal with a lot of racism in Wolf Creek, so she has a different view than Nora, Lizzie, and most of the other kids on the police and prisons in general. As she becomes closer with Nora and Lizzie, her experiences help to broaden their worldviews.

The pieces from these characters all combine together to tell a powerful story about much more than just a manhunt. Breakout is about criminal justice, racism, friendship, and how fear can bring out both the best and the worst in a community.

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much when I picked up this book. I figured it would be a generally okay middle grades novel. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. The story was highly engaging and the messages it contained were thoughtful and social justice-minded in a way that was appropriate for a younger audience. This is the kind of book that encourages its readers to think about some difficult topics without being preachy or overly simplistic. Throughout the text, the characters learn that there are multiple aspects to all people, and that their small, welcoming town isn't quite as inviting as they think. It is very much a coming of age story, with its young characters becoming more aware of the world that surrounds them and their roles within it.

Simply put, Breakout is an impressive novel. Messner did a wonderful job of conveying some very worthy themes within the framework of an extremely engaging story. I liked it so much that I am tempted to keep it for myself, but I think that it is ultimately more important for my future students to read it. My copy will be headed to my classroom library so I can get it into their hands. This was a random buy for me, but it ended up being a lucky pick.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 20/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 38