Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman
Release Date: August 1, 2011
Publisher: Scholastic
Age Group: Young Adult
Shelfability: Acquire
Pages: 336
Format: Advance Reader Copy
Source: Publisher
Interest: Author
Challenge: None
Buy the Book: Amazon
Buy the Ebook: Kindle
Abby and Luke chat online. They've never met. But they are going to. Soon.
Abby is starting high school—it should be exciting, so why doesn't she care? Everyone tells her to "make an effort," but why can't she just be herself? Abby quickly feels like she's losing a grip on her once-happy life. The only thing she cares about anymore is talking to Luke, a guy she met online, who understands. It feels dangerous and yet good to chat with Luke—he is her secret, and she's his. Then Luke asks her to meet him, and she does. But Luke isn't who he says he is. When Abby goes missing, everyone is left to put together the pieces. If they don't, they'll never see Abby again.
A horrific and brutally honest portrayal of a girl falling victim to an internet predator.
This book was scary. What’s even more scary is this happens in real life.
We never had talks about internet predators at my school, but it doesn’t mean that I wasn’t aware of it. When we finally got a computer I was a sophomore in high school and my parents put out computer in the family room where they could watch me from the kitchen. I, being a teenager, thought they were just being paranoid. Looking back on it, they should have been.
I used the same line that Abby & Faith do. “ I only talk to people I know.” Yeah right. Although I was never close to being in the same situation as Abby it’s still scary to look back at it now.
There were times when I had to put this book down. I was uncomfortable and horrified. Which only reaffirms the fact that Littman did an excellent job of tackling this serious subject. This would be a great book for parents to read with their children and discuss the topic at hand. This book is one of those instances that makes “YA Saves” come to mind.
It was easy for me to see that Abby was being stupid and irrational. That she was too trusting, but that’s because I’m twice her age. At the same time it’s easy for me to remember what it’s like to be fourteen and not understand why a cute boy doesn’t like you and why your friends seem to be changing without you. I think the hardest part for me, even with remembering what it was like at fourteen, was to see Abby as the victim. I hated how her father was treating her after what happened, and yet I understood why he did. As I too was struggling with it.
This book is a must read.
Littman also takes this story a step further by creating the Chezteen.com website, which is a place where you can learn more about internet safety.