Product Description

During an idyllic autumn-day hike in the Desolation Wilderness of the Sierra Nevadas, the Baker family is hurled into a nightmare when six-year-old Maggie, a child with Down Syndrome, runs away while playing hide-and-seek with her brother.As the Search and Rescue team combs the place where Maggie was last seen, all the family can do is wait and hope that a clue will lead them to her. Powerful, suspenseful, and deeply affecting, Place Last Seen marks the debut of a gifted new writer. AUTHORBIO: Charlotte McGuinn Freeman has published in Outside Magazine, Summit Magazine, and The Crossroads Anthology, and she has been the recipient of the International Fiction Prize, the White-Howells Prize for Prose, and a residency award at Art of the Wild in Squaw Valley, California.She lives near San Francisco.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1706145 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"Maggie is lost." The matter-of-fact urgency of McGuinn Freeman's opening sentence sets the tone for her solid debut novel. The young Baker family is hiking in the Desolation Wilderness of California's Sierra Nevada when their six-year-old daughter, Maggie, who has Down's syndrome, goes missing while playing hide-and-seek. The ensuing drama unfolds from multiple points of view. Maggie's 30ish artist mother, Anne, her architect father, Richard, and her eight-year-old brother, Luke, are joined in their search by members of the official rescue team, and as the search progresses, the personal traumas of each character emerge. Steve, the middle-aged team leader, is under pressure to keep everyone focused, and Ed, a misanthropic search expert, uses a combination of intuition and expertise to find missing people. Ed hasn't seen his own son, a boy about the same age as Maggie, for three months, since his estranged wife took him away with her. As each night falls, as does the autumn temperature during the three-day search, all parties grow increasingly anxious. Anne and Richard replay the sequence of events that led up to Maggie's disappearance, and feel additional guilt because their daughter has special needs. Luke blames himself for not keeping a closer eye on his younger sister, and as they wait for developments, he sets about building a fort, "a place he can put Maggie in so she can never get out, never wander away." Attitudes toward the "mentally challenged," the intricacies of search and rescue, and the terrible randomness of fate are all poignantly explored here. With its evocative forest setting and unexpected ending, Place Last Seen (the official term for the spot where the missing person was last sighted) is a cinematic page-turner. Regional author tour. (Mar.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-This novel follows the loss and search for a six-year-old Down's syndrome child who has strayed away from a family camping in the Sierra Nevadas. The uncertainty of the hunt as well as the emerging insights into the nature of Maggie's parents and older brother move the plot forcefully. The greatest interest in the book for young people, however, could well be the in-depth mechanics of conducting such a search. Freeman shows how rescue teams cope with the constant threat of oncoming weather and engage in graphing, mapping, and exhaustive close examination of the terrain. The logistics of assembling and coordinating volunteer searchers are detailed. The narrative is told from the viewpoints of both family members and search crews, but primarily it is the story of the family. Anne, the mother, is a difficult character. An artist, she is convinced that her own psychic energies will result in reunion with her child. In addition to their exhausted despair, her more practical husband, nine-year-old son, and a supportive paternal grandmother must cope with her petulant frenzies. Snow halts the rescue work and there is an eventual sad resolution. The strength of the book is in the suspense of the search and a developing familiarity with how it is conducted.
Frances Reiher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller "The tension is almost unbearable...stunning...a first novel that reads like a classic." --Reader's Digest Book Picks

"An elegant and agonizing story...Suspenseful, painful, ultimately redemptive: a beautiful debut from a writer to watch." --Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"This book will reach into, and touch, your heart." --Rick Bass

"A riveting story -- suspenseful. complex, and satisfying." --Judith Guest
-- Review

Customer Reviews

Perfect Pitch
The author of this book seems to have had perfect pitch when she created her characters. Every one of the variety of people in this story, the mom, dad, brother, grandmother, of the lost child, the searchers, etc. are believable, complex people. The dialogue is dead-on, and the conflicts are real. It was heartfelt without sentimentality. Very good novel.

Place Last Seen
I just finished reading Charlotte's book. Couldn't put it down. It is thoughtful, well-written, gripping, and has an extremely tight story line. Even the minor characters are well developed. Leaves one with lots of questions, what ifs, could ifs, should ifs, and thoughts---like a good book should. (I have recently read so many books that started strongly and ended as damp squibs that it was refreshing to read one that ends strongly.) I really recommend it.

Good Search and Rescue Details
As a long-time member of a volunteer K-9 search and rescue team in New England, I approached this book with a good deal of skepticism. Too many books about search and rescue are melodramatic and don't get the details right. This one did, right on the money. The tension and (seeming) chaos of a real search came through with real people. And while the character of the mother seems overwrought and unsympathetic, that is EXACTLY the way parents of lost children act. Kudos to the author for doing her homework.