Taking Terri Mueller

by Norma Fox Mazer

Book Overview

For as long as I can remember, It's just been Daddy and me. I can't remember my mother. I was told she died in an accident when I was four, and that's all I know about her. I don't understand why... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380790041
• ISBN13: 9780380790043
• Release Date: November 1981
• Publisher: HarperTrophy
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

A gripping read, full of very real horror...

Throughout most of her life, Terri Mueller has lived alone with her father Phil, constantly moving, constantly readjusting to a new life in some other state. She never thought much of her father's restlessness, just counted herself lucky to have such a doting dad. But by the time Terri becomes a teenager, she begins to find their vagabond life a little odd. Why can't they stay put like everyone else? And why don't they have an extended family, like her friend Shaundra? Terri does have an aunt, her father's sister Vivian; but Vivian only comes to visit once a year, and in the meantime, Terri can't write or call her... One day, going to fetch Vivian's cigarettes from her purse, Terri spots a photograph of her aunt with two boys. Who are they? Why haven't Vivian or Phil ever mentioned them? All her life, Terri's been told her mother Kathryn was killed in a car accident when she was only four years old. So why are both her father and aunt so evasive about her mother? Why aren't there any photographs? Despite knowing that the truth could be more harmful than anything she's ever known, Terri begins to realize that a life of lies is just as horrible. Slowly, but insistently, she begins to demand the truth...who is she? Although this book was written over 25 years old, it is in no way dated. Sadly, Terri's story could have happened to anyone, and still often does...

An Exciting and Intriguing Read

This book was a terrific read with many suspenseful moments within. It's about a young girl (Terri) who has always lived with her father and thinks her mother is not alive. However, they are always moving from one place to another. This makes Terri very suspicious about who her father really is. She believes that her father kidnapped her from her mother and is just not telling her where she is. Norma Fox Mazer writes the story well enough so that readers will actually be able to put themselves in Terri's place, especially with all of the decisions she has to make along the way. This book is definitely a book I would recommend to young adults. This is because the author really puts into perspective what it would be like to move all of the time and believe your father might have done something in the past that has affected you, is affecting you, and will affect you. This is overall an exciting and intriguing read that is great for a wide variety of people.

Excellent book

Taking Terri Mueller has been the best mystery book I have ever read. I enjoyed it greatly, especially because I could not imagine if that happened to me, I don't know if I would have reacted the same way she did. The only person in her life that she loved and trusted ( her father) had kidnapped her and lied to her about her mother still being alive. It has a great twist to it and I find that is what makes this book appealing to teenager readers like myself. There are not many mystery book that I think teenagers enjoy, but I think they would this one.

:)

--Terri and her father have never stayed in the same place more than six months - after a while, they pack up and move somewhere else. Terri doesn't mind this life style, but after a while she begins to doubt that her mother, supposedly dead, ever actually died, and thinks her father kidnapped her from a divorce between them. Following this is a search for her mother, on which Terri uncovers some terrible secrets in her family's history. --This book is probably my favourite my Norma Fox Mazer; it is also her most realistic, in my opinion. --Marisa

Deeply Moving Story

Terri and her father had such a wonderful relationship. They are really close and don't need anyone else but each other. But, then Terri finds out something terrible...that her father kidnapped her, and that her mother is alive, not dead like her father told her...I always know it's a good book when I cry at the end of it.(smile) Which I did do.