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Trapped!

Book Summary
Awards/Nominations
Book Excerpt
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Summary

What does it mean to be trapped--physically, emotionally, or psychologically? Thirteen prominent young adult authors have been given free rein to interpret the term, and the results are electrifying, revealing the best and worst of the human spirit.

Awards & Nominations

1998: Junior Library Guild selection

Excerpt

Forward by Lois Duncan

The most terrifying reading experience of my life took place in seventh grade, when assigned to "read a short story by an American Author," I arbitrarily selected "The Cast of Amontillado." That story conjured up a vision so totally appalling that it became a permanent imprint upon the parchment of my mind. I happen to be claustrophobic, and the mere idea of poor Fortuna--(I know he was a fictional character, but who cared!)--watching helplessly while a madman sealed him into crypt, was then, and continues to be, the epitome of horror for me.

Compared to Poe, Steven King writers like Hans Christian Andersen! Even no, all these many years later, with my own share of life's true horror stories under my belt, I find that story resurfacing in fever dreams in hideous detail, affecting all of my senses--the sight of that last square of life, so quickly obliterated; the sound of a trowel slathering plaster across a brick then, the dark closing in as the final stone is slowly, deliberately inserted into place. After that, the absolute blackness. The stale scent of motionless air. The piercing eruption of a voice--(Fortuna's or my own?)--as "a succession of loud and shrill screams burst suddenly from the throat of the chained form." And, finally, the chilling realization that, no matter how loudly we scream, there will be no escape.

Fortuna and I are trapped!

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So, not suprisingly, when I was offered the challenge of soliciting and editing a collection of short stories by contemporary authors that leave their mark upon the minds of young adult readers, it didn't take me long to settle upon a theme. I decided to call the anthology Trapped! and to offer my writer colleagues free rein to interpret that term in whatever way they choose.

The results turned out to be more than I could possibly have hoped for, an electric collection of stories by writers from many different genres that range from adventure to fantasy to humor to romance. Within the following pages readers will meet young protagonists who are trapped--physically, mentally, and emotionally--in situations that draw upon the best and the worst of the human spirit. Alicia lies in the darkness, stroking "the bone basket of her ribs," as she graps for the strenght to free herself from the clutch of anorexia. Calvin, in a desperate attempt to escape from a life of poverty, relunctantly trades on form of entrapment for another. And Hector and Jonathan, trapped by a ragging forest fire, discover that manhood demans more than one form of courage.

But there are stories of fun and frolic and fantasy. The tale of an enchanged princess, held captive in a block of ice as she patiently waits for the lover who is desinted to release her. The account of poor, frantic Jill, trapped in a whirlwin of chaos as the only waitress druing rush hour at the House of Pancakes. There is even a reinterpretation of the Greek myth about Theseus, trapped in a maze with a Minotaur, "the monster who breathes next to our bed at night," who has been redisigned to sympoblize all the life's terrors.

I predict that young readers will find this book difficult to put down. It may even drown out the siren son and the boob tube. Once they take the plunge and dive into the stories on these pages, I believe that they will have the same experience I did when I entered the dark domain of "The Cask of Amontillado."

They find themselves trapped.

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Extra Information

Second book in the short story novel collection trilogy edited by Lois Duncan.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 10/14/08