Making the Run

by Heather Henson and Heather Henson

Book Overview

All her life Lulu McClellan has heard the names. Growing up in a small Kentucky town, Lu has forever felt like she's on the outside looking in. Maybe that's why she takes pictures - to make sense of what she sees and feels but doesn't always understand. Now that graduation is almost here, Lu and her friend Ginny are moving in a quick blur of drugs and drink. Lu thinks she's just marking time, waiting for the moment when life will begin for real. But...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0064473392
• ISBN13: 9780064473392
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Harperteen
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.1"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

BEST BOOK EVER

I've read this book multiple times. It not sounds just like the typical life of a teenager, but it's kind of scary how close in personality the main character is to me. I've even gotten to the point where i'm underlining thing's she's said in awe that they are some of the same things i've said to other or even just myself at times. If you're my age, which is 16, soon to be 17, you'll love this book. If you're 20, you'll love this book, anyone will love this book because it's about a young girl who discovers herself, and we all have either gone through that, or are still going through that and because of that, everyone can relate.

Lu's Life

Making the Run is the story of an 18-year old girl on the brink of graduation who wants to get out of Rainey, Kentucky the second after graduation. Lu's life is centered around partying, drinking, hanging with her half-brother and best friend Ginny and of course taking pictures. When her brother's long time best friend , Jay, returns home he has drastically changed from her first crush to her first lover. As things heat up with Lu and Jay, her brother and her father dissapprove. Making the Run shows how Lu deals with all of her problems and makes some decisions that will change her life.

Making the Run

Making the Run is an amazing story of 18-year old Lu, who wants to get out of Rainey, Kentucky right after her graduation. When she reunites with her brother's best friend, Jay, she wants to leave even sooner and take Jay with her. The center of Lu's life is getting high, partying, hanging out with her half-brother and Ginny, her relationship with her father, the loss of her mother and taking pictures. Even though her family is dysfunctional, they are still a big part in her life. When Ginny makes the run and dies, Lu is overcome with guilt because she feels that she should have been with her. Death, both now and then, plays a huge role in Lu's life.

Awesome and lyrical

In fast paced nearly poetic prose, first time novelist Henson presents shutterbug Lulu, a constant observer who sees the events of a her life as series of captioned photographs. A camera hangs around her neck even when it is too dark to take pictures, as she uses the lens to craft a frame of reference for her troubled life: a mother dead at a young age, a distant and critical father, bouts of bad grades, and shoplifting, and more recently, joyriding, drinking and drug experimentation. When Jay, her half brother's friend and bandmate pulls back into town, Lu's first crush becomes her first lover as she develops an intimate relationship with a man ten years her senior that her dad disapproves of.As Lu's eighteenth birthday and high school graduation approach, Lu begins to think that Jay may be her ticket out of small town life. But the two are at odds, in spite of their attraction; just as she is preparing to flee Kentucky, he has returned to make a home; just as she is ready to settle into a relationship, he is not committed.Henson cleverly uses the metaphor of the road to show Lu's twists, turns and detours, and the tragedy it takes to put her - and her relationship with her father - back on the right path.This was an unputdownable novel. We see Lu and her best friend Ginny make bad choices and know something has to give, but we are unable to look away. Naïve readers may be surprised at the turn of events, but Henson manages to make the ending satisfying and believable in spite of the "no other options" feel.Recommended for mature readers; read with Keizer's God of Beer (HarperCollins 2002)

Finding Lu

The life experiences of Lu's final weeks in high school and Rainey, Kentucky expresses a real-life partier and her emotions regarding her life and her years growing up in a small town. Lu is a pot head yet she lives her life responsibly for the most part. Family is most important to her. Lu has a keen eye for photography that matters...each photo she takes tells a story.Lu's romance with Jay is deep and breathless as is her relationship with her best friend, Ginny. Lu's life is centered around her half-brother, getting high, hanging with Ginny, soaking up Jay, working at the Steakhouse, visiting her Gram, and her estranged relationship with her father and the lose of her mother. Making The Run is Lu's story of life and death that make her who she is.