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Jan 19, 2008

Valynne rated it:

This book reminded me a lot of an M. Night Shyamalan movie which I won't name, just in case someone thinks I would be giving away too much of the book's plot. The storylines are kind of similar, but I think that I like the plot twist in this book better than the movie.

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Wendi rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 06, 2008

booklady rated it:

Riveting story about a world within a world. My in-laws live near Conner Prairie, Indiana which is an outdoor living history museum; we had just returned from visiting there when we read this book. The frontier village of Clifton, Indiana which Haddix describes seems much like the tourist attraction, Conner Prairie, a mid-American country town frozen in 1836. But what if there were real people in the living history museum? Wouldn't that make it much more interesting? And what if those peopl More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2011

Colleen rated it:

This book, for about 10-14 year old girls, reads like a rebuttal to the pioneer-girl fantasies those same girls likely had a few years earlier if they read The Little House Collection or played Oregon Trail -- at any rate, those fantasies stand a chance of giving the young reader a better chance of understanding this surprisingly sophisticated and action-packed novel. The driving motivation behind the book's set-up is the lure of old-timey charm on tourists, which has been perverted in a twist b More...

4 comments like

Apr 24, 2011

Julya rated it:

Do you ever wonder how people lived in the 18 hundreds? Do you ever wonder how life would be if people were spying on you without you even knowing? Do you ever wonder how life would be if you were behind glass? The book Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix is about how Jessica finds out that she’s not really in the year 1840.
Jessica lives in Clifton, a peaceful place. She does her chores and knows all the presidents names by heart. That’s not what an average 13 year old girl More...

1 comment like

Mar 27, 2011

Lars rated it:

M. Shyamalan’s ‘The Village’ has a plotline suspiciously close to Margaret Peterson Haddix’s ‘Running Out of Time.’ A nineteenth century backwoods settlement is completely artificial; we’re actually in the present. When a medical emergency prompts residents to seek a twentieth century cure, a young girl is asked to escape the guarded perimeter of her make-believe world.

Despite the striking resemblances, the film’s producers called charges of plagiarism ‘meritless.’ Haddix and he More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Avel rated it:

I really enjoyed reading Running Out of Time. To see the world from the point of view of a girl who believed herself to be living in the 1840's. Her world was viewed through one way mirrors by tourists. They got modern antibiotics for illnesses, but suddenly, when a diphtheria epidemic strikes, the medicine dries up. Is it a coincidence? Most adults still remember the modern world, and they choose a messenger to go out and call help. Jessie is frightened. In her town you could trust people, but More...

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Oct 17, 2010

Brian rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jun 02, 2010

Telka rated it:

This novel is about a girl named Jessie, who lives in Clifton, Indiana.
Everything in Jessie's life is going well, until the disease Diphtheria, breaks through across the town. Once children start dying, Jessie's mother asks her to go on a very dangerous mission. When Jessie finds out that she is really living in the year 1996 instead of 1840, she is very surprised. In this book, Jessie faces many challenges to suceed her journey. Through bravery and determination, the harships that Jessie More...

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May 27, 2010

Sheila rated it:

In 1996, one of the top vacation and “school-trip” attractions in the US is Clifton Village, hidden away in forests outside Indianapolis. A well-made road carries yellow school busses to the entrance station, and barbed wire fences keep the “wild animals” of an authentic 1840s environment safely separate from local farmers. They also make it hard for young Jessie, wild human rather than wild animal, to escape on her quest to find help and medicine for her family and friends.

Running More...

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Jun 30, 2009

Talia rated it:

Jessie lives with her family in the pioneer village of Clifton. When children, including her little sister, start getting deathly ill, Jessie’s mother summons her to the woods to drop a bombshell on her: Clifton is a historical tourist village surrounded by the modern 1996 world AND Jessie must go out into this modern world and get help for the sick children. Now Jessie must escape the village and find help in the strange world that is the 20th century, where she everything is confusing and noth More...

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Sep 19, 2011

Noelle rated it:

Engaging and thoughtful, Haddix's Running Out of Time is one of the only books I was forced to read in middle school that actually resonated with me. Haddix's novel pulled me out of myself and my pre-teen notions of the world and forced me to question the nature of things. The tale has a well rounded protagonist, engaging plot and direct style. Haddix is well equipped at layering her tale and building the plot at a moderate pace while incorporating facts and events harmoniously. This is r More...

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Dec 15, 2008

Jackie rated it:

It's 1840 and Jessie Keyser lives in Clifton, Indiana, a small rural community. When the children of Clifton start to contract diphtheria, panic ensues and Jessie's mother, a local midwife turned healer, is frantic to find a way to cure the children. Jessie's mother arranges for the two of them to meet at a secluded spot. There she tells Jessie an unfathomable secret. Thus begins the unraveling of a devious and dangerous mystery. Clifton is an experiment gone awry with voyeuristic 'tourists' wat More...

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Jul 27, 2011

Tori added it

2004...if you've seen ""The Village""...well they pretty much rip off this entire book. Book is much better. Anyways- my review. What is everything you knew suddenly turned out to be false? That's what Jessie, the main character of this fast-paced novel has to deal with when her mother reveals that the year is 1996, instead of 1840. Jessie and her family live inside a tourist attraction, where everything is kept ""authentic"" and only the adults know the t More...

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Dec 16, 2009

Annie rated it:

I got this book at the Book Fair in grammar school!

I read it and LOVED it so much that I made my mother read it. She also loved it.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the movie "the Village" is totally based on this book??

Having read this in te 8th grade, when the M. Night Shyamalan movie came out, I felt I already knew all the twists and turns because it was so similar to this book.

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 14, 2009

Bethany rated it:

I am somewhat ashamed to say that this is the first Margaret Peterson Haddix book I've read. It was a fast moving, fast read. Now, I have actually seen The Village (and I think M. Night should probably be sending some of the $$$ he made off that movie Ms. Haddix's way), and so I saw the twist coming from page 1...but since the twist was revealed on page, oh, 20? or so, that didn't ruin the book. And it had entirely different characters and a different plot, filled with nefarious schemes and e More...

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Jun 15, 2010

Ethan rated it:

Ethan Samowitz 707 Max the Mighty

In the story, I'm starting to realize that Worm and Max are close to their destination. Max was a on a mission to get Worm to Montana so she can see her real dad.

It took them weeks to get across the U.S.A and they made it. Max and Worm got along together just fine as they left and they've been through a lot.

I'm also starti More...

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Apr 22, 2009

Fred rated it:

Another fine book by M. Haddix. this time, the protagonist, Jessie, is told by her mother to go get help for a dying friend. Jessie thinks she's leaving their small village in 1840 to journey to the big town. But mom dresses her in strange fashions. slowly, it dawns on Jessie--it's not 1840! her community's adults have been duping all the children. it's really the mid 1990s!

Jessie is the human anachronism, walking down a highway trying to make it to Indianapolis. She gets in More...

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Jan 09, 2009

Runa added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 04, 2011

Jenna rated it:

I heartily enjoyed this book because it had so many different elements in it. Running Out of Time has the historical as well as the contemporary because Jessie believes she lives in the quiet world of 1840, but she comes to find out she actually lives in a recreation of 1840 and it's really 1995. Jessie lives in a reality where there are one room school houses and being a blacksmith is an occupation in high demand.

There is a huge element of mystery as Jessie learns that the year More...

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Dec 07, 2009

Karalee rated it:

What a great book! Jessie lives in a small village in Indiana in what she believes to be the 1830s. When the children in the village become ill with diptheria, Jessie's mom sends her on a emergency errand into the "real world" to get help and medicine for the children. The major problem is that, in the "real world" it is 1996. Jessie is stunned to realize that the town of Clifton is a tourist attraction for people that want to see folks living in olden times. The adults More...

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May 24, 2010

Christie rated it:

I have loved this book since I first read it in 6th grade and have re-read it many times. The author combines mystery, adventure, and historical fiction to make a very intense, interesting read. I couldn't put this book down.
The book begins in the year 1840. Jessie Keyser is a young girl who lives with her parents and five siblings in a small town. The town has very strict rules and the children aren't allowed to leave. What Jessie doesn't know is that the year is actually 1996 and the to More...

1 comment like

Jul 08, 2009

Malia rated it:

Running out of time is about a girl named Jessie, who lives in the 1840's- or so she thinks! She is a believable character going about daily prairie life in Clifton, Indiana. When a deadly incurable disease strikes upon the village her mother revels that it is actually 1996 and that they are living in a tourist village, Jessie must get medicine from the outside world. Jessie is shocked that tourists have been watching her every move on cameras placed around Clifton. She reliazes that everything More...

16 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 03, 2010

Carly rated it:

This is one of my favorite books from my childhood, and I still read it today and am drawn into the story. It's set in the near future where there is a community that lives in a village cut off from the outside world. For the purpose of entertaining and educating people on the outside, the people on the inside live as if they are in a pioneer town in the 1800s. The adults know that they are putting on an act, but the children are raised to be unaware so as to make the experience more authentic. More...

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Feb 05, 2012

Karen rated it:

My daughter read this book with her 5th grade class and she was so excited to have me read it, too. She had never been excited about mysteries or suspense novels, but this book intrigued her and might have opened her to trying a new genre. Because Grace likes history and because we live in Indiana, she found the setting for this book interesting. (I enjoyed reading about how the author developed the idea for this book!)

When I asked Grace which character she most enjoyed in the boo More...

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Jan 05, 2012

Kathryn rated it:

A girl living in the 1800's is sent by her mother to the world outside their small town to find medicine that will save the town's children from dying from diphtheria. She comes to find out that the world is very different from what she thought. The adults have been keeping an enormous secret and there is danger all around. Will she be able to overcome the fact that she's been lied to and life isn't what it seems at all? Will she be able avoid the danger and save the children?

I really More...

0 comments like

Sep 12, 2011

Jillian rated it:

The concept of this book is really cool. Its all about a town, much like Williamsburg, VA or Sturbrige, MA - except that rather than actors pretending to live in that time period, it is populated by families who actually believe they are living at that time. The story is about one girl whose world is shattered when she is told that it is not in fact the 1800s. She must then venture out into the 'modern' world to find a cure for the epidemic which is killing children in the town. Though it starte More...

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Oct 14, 2009

Valerie rated it:

I was really impressed with Margaret Haddix's first novel. If I'd read this as an editor, I would have been really excited to sign on this author. It's an inventive story. Jessie is an ordinary girl living in a small town in the 1840s--she thinks--when the town's children are struck with diptheria. This is when Jessie's mother, who serves as the midwife, tells Jessie that it is really 1996 and there is medicine available to help the children, but Jessie must sneak out of the town, past guards an More...

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Mar 13, 2011

Just2fabulous rated it:

Margaret Peterson Haddix is one of my favorite authors and this book doesn't disappoint. In this tale a group of families have agreed to live in a specially designated area of land away from the public to live out their lives as if it is in the 1800's. The children are educated and taught to believe it really is the 1800's and are supposed to be told the truth when they come of age and have the choice to leave if they wish. However, the creators of this "historical park" have other More...

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Jan 25, 2009

Samantha rated it:

Thirteen-year-old Jessie lives with her blacksmith father and midwife mother and several siblings in a frontier town in 1840. Then her mother tells her the truth: the year is really 1996 and they are actually living in a historical village, where tourists watch them via hidden cameras. The worst news is they're being held captive by the owner of the complex, who won't provide them with medicine despite an outbreak of diptheria. Jessie has to escape and find help in a modern world she can't even More...

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