Twice Taken

by Susan Beth Pfeffer

It seems incredible that a call-in TV show featuring pictures of missing children could change her life so drastically, but when a 16-year-old recognizes her father in the photo on the screen, she discovers that the family who's been searching for their daughter is looking for her.

But who is she? Brooke or Amy? She's been living with her father and now learns he's taken her illegally. Who do you love when everyone says they love you? How can anyone know which parent loves you most?

Susan Beth Pfeffer delivers yet another hard-hitting novel that delves into the issues that confront real teens today.

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Fiction, Teen, Own, Family, Childrens

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

About the author

Susan Beth Pfeffer was an American author best known for young adult and science fiction. After writing for 35 years, she received wider notice for her series of post-apocalyptic novels, officially titled "The Life as We Knew It Series", but often called "The Last Survivors" or "Moon Crash" series, some of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Reviews

[Mary JL · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conflict Brooke/Amy feels in this book is very, very well done.

Everyone in her new family is telling her how terrible her father, who abducted her at the age of five, is. Yet Brooke (she still does not yet think of hereself as Amy, her real name, yet)has lived with him for eleven years. He was not terrible to her. Barely able to recall her mother---her father told Brooke she was dead--Hal Donovan is the parent she knew and loved.

Now, at the stressful teen age of 16 years, she is thrust into a brand new family situation. Her mother is overprotective; her 11 year old stepsister resents her.

From page 59 : her father"...I was scared and I ran and I hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you and I did." Brooke: "You didn't--you loved me". Her Father "Oh Brooke, you can love someone and hurt them anyway......"

I really like the way Pfeffer shows the good and bad sides of all the characters. The father is not portrayed as truly evil--and he is not, btw; Brooke's real family is not presented as all good.


You read about these things in real life and you think "how wonderful" for the parents who have now find their child. This book shows that even in a situation like this, there would be a difficult time of adjustment.

Written for teens, but I am 59 and I thought is was great. Recommended for anyone who wants a good story with lots to say about family relationships.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A teenager finds out she's actually been abducted by her father years ago, and her mother's been looking for her for all these years. She doesn't know what to do, of where to go. Probably happens in real life, more than one would think.

Made one think a little.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I ever read in English, it’s been over 20 years, but I remember loving it and reading it more than once.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had recently found Pfeffer's books about the moon incident (Life as we Knew it and The Dead and Gone) and thoroughly enjoyed them. So, while at the library the other day I decided to pick up another one.

This one was good, although I was surprised by the amount of language (lots of f-words especially) in it, since her other books were extremely mild that way.

She took a very good look at what the abducted child might feel like when she was taken by her own father at a very young age. When she is finally reunited with her mother at age sixteen, she has very mixed feelings and really no desire to live with her mother, who is a virtual stranger to her.

Amy/Brooke has to come to grips with a lot of things and work through a full gamut of emotions in order to come to terms with everything. I was very disappointed in the way her mother handled the situation (her step-father was much better), but I don't know if I would have been able to handle it much differently, myself.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, about a girl who sees herself on the show "Still Missing" and calls the 1-800 number. Turns out she was taken by her dad, the non-custodial parent. I was intreguiged and it kept my interest, but it wasn't stellar. My biggest compalint is that I did not think the fast timetable was realistic, nor the actions of many of the adults around the girl. Caroline B. Cooney's "The Face on the Milk Carton" is similar subject matter, is much more riveting and has aged better.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this in 24 hours (would have been quicker if I didn't need sleep!). Nicely portrayed feelings of a teenage girl going through a rough transition from the father who kidnapped her as a child and raised her to the mother who has been searching for her for years. I felt the author portrayed her conflicting emotions well and realistically.

[Asenath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very sad and emotional book. Girl gets abducted by father, but doesn't realize it until she sees herself on a missing person's program on TV when she's 16. The rest of the book is her dealing with meeting her mother and accepting her new life.

[Caitlyn Shields · Rating 3 out of 5]

A girl is watching a missing TV show and recognizes her dad and herself, she calls in and reports her dad. But when she gets to her new home she finds out that she has made the biggest mistake of her life. A good book with a lot of drama and surprise.

[Miss.Always.Reading.Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a lot like Ellen Hopkins book "The You I've Never Known." I read that book just before I read this book and it felt like I was basically reading the same book lol In Hopkins book a father kidnaps his daughter from the time she was five years old up until she was sixteen/seventeen. The father lives from place to place, jumping from one woman to another woman until he settles down with a woman. The daughter finds out that she is kidnapped when he mother see her father on the news and confronts him in person. The father has filled the daughter's head up with so many lies she doesn't know who to believe.
In this book it's the same except Brooke calls an 1-800 number because she sees herself on TV, her father's has kidnapped her and now she finds out that her mother has been looking for her for years. Brooke who's real name is Amy goes to live with her mother after 11 years of being kidnapped by her father. Only Brooke/Amy doesn't want a mother, throughout the book she tries & tries to love her mother but the connection just will not come. She tries to like her half brother & sister but doesn't feel anything for them. She sees herself as being just fine without a mother & her life was great before when she was being raised by her dad. There's a lot of bickering and arguing through out the book about how each character hates Brooke's dad for what he did. Brooke finally confronts her dad on the phone and ask him why did he kidnap her, he said it was because her mother used to hit her so he kidnapped her to keep her safe. Brooke/Amy doesn't know what to believe. In the end she starts to feel comfortable enough to let her mother know that she likes her and will try her best to get used to living with her.

[Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if you couldn’t see your mom everyday? What if you were told she’s dead? Or she didn’t want you? Twice Taken by Susan Beth Pfeffer is a fictional book about a teenage girl named Brooke. Who was kidnapped by her father when she was 5 years old from her house but she was kept from having a mother because she was told that her mother didn't want her and that her mother had died, but they were wrong; when she recognized her father with that “missing” girl she called that 1-800 number she saw on the TV. It’s a very interesting book to me because I love books that have a scary climax or a shocking climax that just hits you.This is one of my favorite books so far.

I like stories where the characters are scared to see what will happen next because then I’m always on the edge of my seat.For example when Brooke was stolen by her father “…It kills me inside that you might snatch yourself the way you snatched me…”(pg 185). .What I don’t like is when the characters aren’t described very well or the scene isn’t described either. For example when the character is at home then they’re at the mall the next page because the author doesn’t explain what the character is doing. The author Susan Beth Pfeffer did an okay job on describing the characters but other than that the book was great.

One thing a book must be able to do is hold my attention which is why I really liked the conflict between human vs. human. What I think is that Brooke’s father is the antagonist and Brooke is the protagonist. But if I was Brooke’s father I wouldn’t have done what he did. I totally agree with Brooke even though I wouldn’t have the guts to do what she did. But what her father did I don’t understand why he did that.

To conclude I highly recommend you pick-up Twice Taken.It’s a book that I couldn’t put down I was always on the edge of my seat. I would recommend this book to middle and high school students, but there’s a few times Brooke says a bad word.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. Not this authors best work. She has better books. For the whole book I wanted her to tell her mother how it is. I liked the end with the talk but that honestly needed to come earlier in the book. The father got what he needed to hear but the mother was horrible too. The sister also needed to be told to get over herself and that life was not all about her. The little brother was some what spoiled. I just wanted Amy (Brooke) to go off on all of them except Mike and Mona.

[adaynasmile · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book way back in the 90s. Probably right after it came out. It has stuck with me as a good thriller. While similar to the Janie stories by Cooney, this book holds its own twists and turns.

[Serafine C]

Ngl I didn't like it very much because the character was very hard to relate to. The way she acted was so completely opposite of me and that made it hard to focus on the book.

[Samantha Comer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it for a kid's book it wasn't half bad

[Sierra]

One night, Brooke wanted to go out with her friends. She was 16. That's what most teenagers do on a Friday night. Except tonight. Brooke's dad asked Brooke to watch his girlfriend's kids so they could go on a date. They kids were TERRIBLE!! So rude and disrespectful. So it was not on her schedule. But she did it anyways because she was always out and he wasn't. So after she put the kids down to watch a movie together, she decided to watch tv. There were only about 10 channels. So she decided to watch the only one that sounded interesting. It was called "Still missing". She would of never guessed in a million years that she would recognize her dad on the television. When Brooke was 5 or 6 years old, her father took her and changed her name, birthday, and his last name. Brooke decided to call the 800 number on the tv and tell them that she just recognized her father on tv and she believes she is the missing child. The police show up at the kid's house and the kids were sent to spend the night at the neighbors house. Brooke went down to the station. She got sent to a foster home for the weekend until her mother got to the station. When her mom got there, they visited. Her mom always called her "Amy" because that was her name as a younger child. That Monday they had to go to the judge. The judge declared that she goes to her moms until she is 18 and she can't speak nor see her father until she is 18. She is to leave that day to go to her mothers. When she gets to her moms, her siblings are mean. They are disgracing her dad. The one she really loves. She doesn't really like it there. She really likes her step dad mike though. He's more laid back. Will Amy ever learn to like it there? Will she finally get that mother, daughter relationship feeling with her real mom?
I absolutely LOVED this book. It was a real tearjerker for me! My favorite/worst part was her having to leave her dad. I didn't like that she had to leave her dad but it was so emotional, I loved it. One thing I didn't like was when she met the rest of the family, they all were beating on her dad. Like they were saying mean words about him. And with Amy's/Brooke's attitude in the book, I was expecting her to say something to them about how he was really good to her, but she never did. I was kind of upset about that. But over all, I loved the book!

[Ryan Austin]

I found this book very interesting! It was a fun book to read, and it was very good at drawing you in to the story. This story is about a sixteen year old girl whose parents are divorced. The girls name is Brooke, but when the incident in the book takes place she finds out her real name is Amy. The teenager finds out that she was abducted by her father when she was a young child. She doesn't realize this until she is sixteen because they have moved consecutively throughout her life. Brooke/Amy finds out who she really is from a television show that is on late saturday while she is babysitting her father's girlfriends dad.
Brooke/Amy then goes to live with her mother and stepfather. There she realizes how much her father has real taken from her. She lost her mother, stepfather, little sister, and brother. Not only did he take her family away from her, but also the chance to have a normal childhood that did not involve moving around every year or two. Brooke/Amy finds a new group of friends to hangout with when she goes to school in the new town. She is part of the "Freak-Of-The-Month" club. She learns about this club from a senior boy and a sophmore girl.
What I really liked about this book is that it involved a junior in high school, which is the same grade as myself. I really like how it showed what it is like to go to a new school. I also enjoyed how she told how she felt about her mother because she hasn't been with her for several years of her life, she did not even know that her mother had been looking for her all this time.

[Janna Creighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I want to be with my daughter,” my mother said . “It’s been eleven years.I don't want to take a nap. I want to talk to her and hold her and tell her how much I love her.”
“I understand,” Mrs. Markowitz said. “But this is very hard on Amy, and I think she could use the time to adjust.”
“I’m okay,” I said. “This is very exciting for me.” I smiled to show how excited I was.
Mr. Giard looked at me and then he looked at his wife. “Betty, let’s go back to the motel.”
This was a huge part of the main character being fully aware of her life now


This book is about the reality of family relationships, they aren’t perfect and they have problems but they will be figured out in the end. but sometimes things can’t be fixed, someone can back such a big mistake that things will never be the same.

This story was very interesting, the thing is this could easily happen in real life which is kind of scary.

One part I did not like is the lack of mystery in the beginning.

All in All, Twice Taken is a great mysterious and emotional roller coaster.

[Jax · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this story was overall between okay and good. The story itself was interesting, but I felt that the emotions the author tried to convey were either not deep enough or excessively used. Thus, it wasn't so easy to relate with the intense feelings the characters feels; however, this may be because I myself have never really experienced intense family troubles similar to the ones in the book. There were times where I thought that the story was written with a fairly nice flow and mood that made things very hopeful which I enjoyed, but I felt that the abrupt and inconclusive ending overshadowed this. Still, I managed to not put the book down until the last page, so the writing itself is very intriguing as well as the character's own account of her personal turmoil.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brooke was raised by a loving father. He has never done anything bad to her in her 16 years of life, but when she sees a picture of them when she was 5 years old on a missing child on TV she doesn't know what to think. Her father stole her when she was five and gave her a new name. She is supposed to be Amy. Now she has to live with an overprotective mother she doesn't know and a step-sister who hates her.
This books shows both sides to this kind of situation. The mother who lost her is not perfect and the dad who raised her has been lying to her for the past 11 years. She doesn’t really know what to o, but she thinks that calling the hotline was the biggest mistake of her life.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brooke didn't want to be babysitting her father's girlfriend's 2 kids that evening. If she was out on a date, like she was supposed to have been, she would never have seen the TV show with the 1-800 number. She wouldn't have seen her dad's picture and realized the missing child they were talking about was her. She would never have called the number and wound up living with a mother and family she doesn't remember. Is she Brooke Eastman or Amy Donovan?

[Thalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a simple, nice quick read. Pfeffer is an amazing author and love reading her work. Twice taken is just about a girl who was kidnapped by her father and then years later she calls a 1-800 number and has to reunite with her mother. * spoiler* In the end, The book ends on a cliffhanger leaving you to believe that her mother and her like each other. I'd reccomend it if you like small books with an interesting plot.

[Ashlie Ferris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twice Taken is an amazing book. Twice Taken is a very unique book on how there are times where you can even tust your own family. After one night of sitting of baby sitting, a young girls life is changed from watching tv and seeing her father on it.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good Pfeffer book.

[Kirthi · Rating 1 out of 5]

i didn't like it at all. it gave me a headache

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

a suprisingly thought provoking book...

[Melody · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yuck. Don't waste your time. I didn't. There should be a shelf called "can't stand to finish" or "don't bother".

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pleasing! I probabily would be good for a book two!

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was great a non scary mystery i love it

[Angie Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a different book from What I had read till now.

[Nattie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought that this book would be good, but it wasn't. Amy/Brooke had a really bad attitude and it ruined everything. The kidnapping father never seemed all that sorry in my OP. Ugh!