What would you do? As far as I'm concerned, there's no excuse not to be decent...Especially when you're responsible for a kid. It just figures that fifteen-year old Victoria's dad fails once again to be at the train station like he's promised.  Fuming, Victoria watches as a teen mom stashes her bruised little boy in the train's bathroom.  When the mom gets off the train alone, Victoria decides she has had it with all the poor excuses who call them selves parents.  Making a split-second decision, Victoria boards the next train out of town-taking the little boy with her. No, really, what would you do? Victoria's staying on the run until everyone responsible starts keeping their promises. This kid's not falling through the cracks. Not on her watch. Grade 8 Up—Frustrated by her parents' divorce two years earlier, 15-year-old Victoria convinces her mother to let her travel from Connecticut to stay in New York with her father for the summer. She witnesses a teen speaking harshly to her toddler son and sees her leave him in the train's bathroom. Victoria watches as the young woman and a man argue on the platform. Before she knows it, Victoria has the toddler in her possession and is barreling past her stop. She begins with the best of intentions to protect the child from an abusive situation, but, without much thought, she takes the boy, whom she calls Wills, on a train ride to Georgia. Victoria finds a large stash of money, hastily stuffed in her backpack by the boy's mother, and begins to receive threatening calls on her cell phone from the man on the platform and worried calls from her father and various police agencies. Victoria must find a way for Wills to be safe and believes that staying on the lam is the best solution. DeKeyser accurately describes the thought process that Victoria goes through as she comes to the realization of what she's done. While at the heart of her choices is her anger over her parents' divorce, the author does not oversimplify the situation. Teens are sure to find this an interesting read.— Sarah Krygier, Solano County Library, Fairfield, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Wrestling with feelings of betrayal in the wake of her parents’ divorce, a teenager, convinced she is a rescuer, kidnaps a roughly handled two-year-old in this flawed but thought-provoking first novel. Mulling over broken promises as she rides the train into New York to visit her father, bitter Victoria sees a young mother leave her bruised child in the bathroom and step out onto the platform to meet a scary-looking dude. The train pulls out, and Victoria finds herself traveling with a lad she dubs William, struggling to care for him and vowing that he won’t fall between society’s cracks. Then Victoria discovers a wad of money—drug money—slipped between her backpack by the boy’s mom, and learns she’s being sought not only by her parents and the police but by others as well. The expected suspenseful chase never materializes. DeKeyser focuses, instead, on Victoria’s hard-fought inner battles. Consequently, rather than facing physical danger, she comes round to realize that, first, she’ll have to go back to face the music, and, second, that it’s naive to think that promises can always be kept. Readers expecting a thriller will be disappointed, but introspective tweeners will find plenty to chew on. Grades 5-8. --John Peters DeKeyser convincingly portrays Victoria's struggle to understand what happened to her once-perfect family and to protect a small boy. -- Publisher's Weekly Strong characters and fast-paced action. -- VOYA Thought-provoking....Introspective tweeners will find plenty to chew on. -- Booklist With a combination of lively adventure and humane treatment of its characters, this is an absorbing and emotionally effective read. -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (BCCB) Growing up in Wisconsin, Stacy DeKeyser spent her childhood summers reading at the library. The author of two middle-grade nonfiction books, Stacy has since turned to writing fiction. She received a Work-in-Progress Grant from SCBWI for her first novel, and is now working on her second novel for young people. She lives in Connecticut. ONE “Do you have your train ticket?” “Yes, Mother.” “Your emergency money and change for the phone?” “You saw me put it in my pocket. Besides, I have the cell phone.” I waved it in front of her face. Mom didn’t take her eyes off the traffic. “You can’t rely on cell phones, Victoria. Keep some change for the pay phone just in case. And that fifty dollars―it’s not all for junk food and magazines, you know. It’s emergency money. Call me as soon as you get to your father’s.” She let out a long breath and shook her head. “I still can’t believe I’m letting you do this.” “Mom, I’m fifteen. Besides, we made a deal.” “And that credit card is only for absolute desperate emergencies, understand? Don’t even take it out of your pocke