Books
7 Stories of Missing Children
There are few scenarios more nightmarish than a missing child. It's obviously a sensationalist topic that lends itself well to an exciting story, but it's also a hard topic to do well. Here are seven authors that manage to do the narrative justice and produce a great reads in the process.
There are few scenarios more nightmarish than a missing child. It's obviously a sensationalist topic that lends itself well to an exciting story, but it's also a hard topic to do well. Here are seven authors that manage to do the narrative justice and produce a great reads in the process.
'Claire of the Sea of Light' by Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge Danticat is always amazing, but her latest novel is particularly haunting. Set in a costal village in her native Haiti, the book follows a single father faced with the impossible choice of whether or not his daughter would be better off raised by someone else — a daughter who subsequently disappears. Claire of the Sea of Light is about the nature of parenthood, of human relationships, and of the many more mysterious bonds people forge.
'The Bean Trees' by Barbara Kingsolver
When Taylor Greer decides to get out of her native Kentucky, she never expected to have a woman in Oklahoma hand her a baby and insist that she take it — but that's exactly what happens. Soon Taylor and baby Turtle find themselves in Arizona building a zany life with an excellent cast of characters.
'Shoot the Moon' by Billie Letts
Almost 30 years prior, the murder of Gaylene Harjo and the disappearance of her infant son Nicky Jack rocked the tiny town of DeClare, Okla. Even more shocking is when a fully grown Nicky Jack, long presumed dead, suddenly returns to town as an adult looking for answers about his past.
'The Graveyard Book' by Neil Gaiman
Unlike adult literature in which a missing child is cause for tragedy and alarm, when kids go missing in children’s books, it’s usually an excuse for an adventure. In The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman manages to bring in both the lighthearted and the sinister with a tale of a child whose family is murdered, leaving him to be raised in the local cemetery by the resident ghosts.
'The Beet Queen' by Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdich’s second novel delves into the German immigrant half of her family tree, and follows the Adare family: an irresponsible mother who literally flies away from her three children, the shiftless Karl, the overly-practical Mary, and a baby who is promptly kidnapped.
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney
One of the staples of middle school, The Face on the Milk Carton series shows us what it’s like to realize that you were kidnapped as a child. Janie Johnson is a normal high school girl – until she sees her own four-year-old self on a milk carton as a missing person. Needless to say, her world gets turned upside down.
'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov
This 20th century classic is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre and disturbing childhood abductions in literature. Narrator Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed with pre-teen Dolores Hayes, whom he nicknames Lolita, and the twists and turns of this forbidden passion has kept readers horrified yet glued to their seats for generations.
