Run

by Kody Keplinger

Overview

From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Duff. “A good unlikely friendship story . . . and a nuanced portrait of disability and small-town life.” —School Library Journal

Bo Dickinson is a girl with a wild reputation, a deadbeat dad, and a mama who’s not exactly sober most of the time. Everyone in town knows the Dickinsons are a bad lot, but Bo doesn’t care what anyone thinks.

Agnes Atwood has never gone on a date, never even stayed out past ten, and never broken any of her parents’ overbearing rules. Rules that are meant to protect their legally blind daughter—protect her from what, Agnes isn’t quite sure.

Despite everything, Bo and Agnes become best friends. And it’s the sort of friendship that runs truer and deeper than anything else. So when Bo shows up in the middle of the night, with police sirens wailing in the distance, desperate to get out of town, Agnes doesn’t hesitate to take off with her. But running away and not getting caught will require stealing a car, tracking down Bo’s dad, staying ahead of the authorities, and—worst of all—confronting some ugly secrets.

“Bo and Agnes’ unlikely friendship rings true and strong . . . An ambitiously structured road-trip novel.” —Kirkus Reviews

“There’s plenty to recommend . . . though the most effective thing here remains Agnes’ and Bo’s voices and the strength of their realistically tumultuous relationship.” ––Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545831154
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/17/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	337
Sales rank:	706,902
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Kody Keplinger grew up in a small Kentucky town. During her senior year of high school, she wrote her debut novel, The DUFF, which is a New York Times bestseller, a USA Today bestseller, a YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, and a Romantic Times Top Pick. It has since been adapted into a major motion picture. Kody is also the author of Lying Out Loud, a companion to The DUFF; That's Not What Happened; Run; Shut Out; and A Midsummer's Nightmare, as well as the middle-grade novels Lila and Hadley and The Swift Boys & Me. Kody lives in New York City, where she teaches writing workshops and continues to write books for kids and teens. You can find more about her and her books at kodykeplinger.com.

Read an Excerpt

I turn the knob and push open the door. Agnes lets go of my arm and slides her hand along the wall until she finds the light switch. A fluorescent light flickers on above us, revealing two cars parked side by side. One is the Atwoods' regular car, a white Toyota. I've seen Agnes's parents driving it around Mursey, picking her up from school, filling it with gas at the Shell station on Buckley Road. The other is an old, silver Chevy I ain't seen before."My sister's car," Agnes says, like she's reading my mind. "She's still at college, so nobody's using it.""Won't she be home for summer soon, though?"Agnes shrugs. "We need it more than she does."I can't argue with that. Agnes and I toss our backpacks in the back. Neither of our bags are heavy. We just packed what we absolutely needed. "Hop in, Utah," I say, patting the backseat. She climbs onto the seat and licks the side of my face before I shut the door.Agnes gets into the passenger seat and I run to turn off the garage light before I slide behind the wheel. Above my head, attached to the visor, is an automatic garage door opener."Will your parents hear?""No," Agnes says. "They sleep like rocks."My heart is pounding and my hands are slick with sweat as I shove one of the keys into the ignition. It takes me a few tries to get it to turn over, and the revving is so loud it makes me flinch. Her parents had better sleep like the dead, or else we ain't even getting out of the driveway. The clock on the dashboard lights up and tells me it's just past three a.m."Agnes," I say, almost choking on her name. "You sure you wanna do this?""No." She turns her head, and this time she's looking right at me. "But I'm doing it anyway."

Editorial Reviews

05/30/2016
Keplinger (Lying Out Loud) explores the unlikely friendship between two girls: Agnes Atwood, who has a genetic condition that has left her legally blind, and Bo Dickinson, a member of the most notorious (and most maligned) family in a small Kentucky town full of gossips. Alternating between Bo and Agnes's perspectives, Keplinger tells this story backward and forward—Bo's chapters take place in the present, as Agnes and Bo skip town in the middle of the night, while Agnes's start at the beginning of their friendship, revealing the local reputation of the Dickinsons and how the two girls met and became close. Keplinger creates strong, distinct personalities for the girls through their first-person narratives; that readers never get Agnes's thoughts about being with Bo as they flee police is the story's main weakness. Agnes and Bo may share equal space on the page, but this is primarily Bo's story, with Agnes left explaining Bo's circumstances. This, along with the drawn-out mystery behind Bo's reasons for running, tends to frustrate the story's tension rather than build suspense. Ages 14–up. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary & Media. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Run

“A good unlikely friendship story with compelling characters and a nuanced portrait of disability and small-town life.”––School Library Journal

“There's plenty to recommend . . . though the most effective thing here remains Agnes' and Bo's voices and the strength of their realistically tumultuous relationship.” ––Booklist

“Bo and Agnes' unlikely friendship rings true and strong.” ––Kirkus

Praise for The DUFF

"[A] well-written, irreverent, and heartfelt debut." ––Publishers Weekly

"A complex, enemies-with-benefits relationship that the YA market has never seen before ... Her snarky teen speak, true-to-life characterizations, and rollicking sense of humor never cease in her debut." ––Kirkus Reviews

"What's best here is Bianca's brazen voice. Even when confused, she is truer to herself than most." ––Booklist

Praise for Lying Out Loud

"Keplinger creates vivid, believable characters that are full of spunk and joie de vivre . . . Fierce, fresh, total fun." ––Kirkus

"Sonny is a realistic and very human character, and even though she is a liar, her motivations are all too believable." ––School Library Journal

From the Publisher

07/01/2016
Gr 7 Up—Everyone in town knows who Bo is—one of those Dickinsons, nothing but trouble. Everyone in town knows who Agnes is—an innocent blind girl, obedient daughter, an angel from heaven. When they become friends, both teens prove everyone wrong. Told alternately from two different perspectives and points in the narrative, this realistic novel is a strong entry in the tradition of unlikely friendship books. Bo and Agnes have unearned reputations and expectations that stifle them in their small town and will resonate with readers with and without disabilities, from large communities and small. The portrayal of Agnes's blindness is well crafted, less about what she can and can't do and more about others' expectations. The depiction of typical blindness, rather than the dramatic full-dark blindness that is more often presented in literature, is very welcome, as are Agnes's mixed feelings about her accommodations and her parents' advocacy. Bo's experiences are somewhat more familiar to readers of YA literature but are well explored as well. Neither protagonist seems to be there to prop up the story of the other. Rather, both are fully realized characters on their own concurrent journeys. VERDICT A good unlikely friendship story with compelling characters and a nuanced portrait of disability and small-town life.—L. Lee Butler, Hart Middle School, Washington, DC

School Library Journal

2016-03-02
Two small-town Kentucky high school girls run away together. Bo, whose voice narrates the story going forward from the night they steal Agnes' sister's car, is a sober bisexual virgin who's widely considered the school slut. Most of her family members are drunk or in jail, her father ran off, and her mother's addicted to meth. Agnes, whose voice in alternate chapters narrates the story in flashback from the beginning of her friendship with Bo, is legally blind from birth and chafing at the restrictions her well-meaning but hardly adventurous family puts upon her. She also drinks beer and has had sex with Bo's cousin. The two narratives come at each other from a distance, then cross in a way that drains some of the tension out of the conflict: by the time readers understand the reason for the white girls' sudden departure, they also know that Bo has made promises she never intended to keep, which puts the entire escapade in an uncomfortable light. A pat ending feels tacked-on, but Bo and Agnes' unlikely friendship rings true and strong. Agnes can see lights and shadows, and she is competent at navigating familiar areas with the help of a cane; she can read with heavy magnifiers. Her blindness never feels stereotyped, nor does the sense of small-town suffocation. An ambitiously structured road-trip novel stumbles a bit but gets a lot right. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews