Breakout by Kate Messner

Nora Tucker is looking forward to summer vacation in Wolf Creek--two months of swimming, popsicles, and brushing up on her journalism skills for the school paper. But when two inmates break out of the town's maximum security prison, everything changes. Doors are locked, helicopters fly over the woods, and police patrol the school grounds. Worst of all, everyone is on edge, and fear brings out the worst in some people Nora has known her whole life. Even if the inmates are caught, she worries that home might never feel the same. 

Told in letters, poems, text messages, news stories, and comics--a series of documents Nora collects for the Wolf Creek Community Time Capsule Project--Breakout is a thrilling story that will leave readers thinking about who's really welcome in the places we call home.

There are a lot of interesting middle grade books out there about prisons - All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook  is one of them - that takes a hard look at the issue and how it affects kids. Breakout is slightly different. There is a main character, Elidee, who moves to Wolf Creek to be closer to her incarcerated older brother. But for the most part, this is a book about a small town where most of the income comes from the prison, and what happens when two inmates escape.

I've enjoyed Messner's books in the past, but I had a difficult time with this one. Maybe it's because most of the novel revolves around Nora, a blissfully unaware middle schooler whose father runs the prison. As far as Nora's concerned, racism doesn't even really exist - that is, until Elidee (who is African American) moves to town, and Nora starts noticing how differently people, including her own mother, treats her. 

Some of my reservations stemmed from the mixed media aspect of this book - I don't get as emotionally attached to books told through various mediums, and that was the case here. I also felt that this was less a story about inequality and hard truths, and more about a white tween's journey to social consciousness. Both stories are valid, but I was expecting the former, not the latter. 

I also found Elidee's ending problematic. Logistically, it made no sense to me. No spoilers, but I don't know if this would actually happen in real life. 

If you want an introduction to Kate Messner's work, I highly recommend All the Answers or The Seventh Wish. The Seventh Wish in particular, is a gentle, yet unflinching look at family issues. For me, Breakout just didn't have the same amount of impact.