Solid Gold Kid

by Norma Fox Mazer, Harry Mazer

What he's dreaded most has finally happened....Kidnapped. It's a word that sixteen-year-old Derek Chapman is afraid to even think, but the reality of it is beginning to sink in. He'd been standing at the bus stop in the rain with four other kids-strangers-when the van came along, and they'd hitched a ride to escape the storm.Derek knows he is the only one the kidnappers really care about he's the son of a self-made millionaire, and now he has a price on his head. The others, two guys and two girls, just had the bad luck to follow him into the van. Although Derek is the target of the kidnappers, the danger is real for all of them. Even if the criminals get the ransom money, will all the victims be set free?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Mystery Thriller

Library Binding

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Norma Fox Mazer was an American author and teacher, best known for her books for children and young adults.

She was born in New York City but grew up in Glens Falls, New York, with parents Michael and Jean Garlan Fox. Mazer graduated from Glens Falls High School, then went to Antioch College, where she met Harry Mazer, whom she married in 1950; they have four children, one of whom, Anne Mazer, is also a writer. She also studied at Syracuse University.

New York Times Book Review contributor Ruth I. Gordon wrote that Mazer "has the skill to reveal the human qualities in both ordinary and extraordinary situations as young people mature....it would be a shame to limit their reading to young people, since they can show an adult reader much about the sometimes painful rite of adolescent passage into adulthood."

Among the honors Mazer earned for her writing were a National Book Award nomination in 1973, an American Library Association Notable Book citation in 1976, inclusion on the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year list in 1976, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1978, an Edgar Award in 1982, German Children's Literature prizes in 1982 and 1989, and a Newbery Medal in 1988.

Mazer taught in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children & Young Adults Program at Vermont College.

For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/norma-fo...

Reviews

[Devon Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in a single plane ride from FL to RI when we visited my grandparents for Christmas that year. To this day, it is the only book I can recall reading cover to cover, in a single sitting.

[Rahni]

Funny story--I started reading this book last week because it was dropped off on my desk after having been turned in to the school's lost & found. The cover and title made me instantly nostalgic for the out-of-date books I sometimes stumbled across in my school libraries, so I started reading it. I started out thinking it was pretty entertaining, in a my-how-life-and-books-have-changed-since-the-late-70's-kind-of-way, but the shine quickly faded as I struggled to make it to the end. The characters were rather typecast caricatures, and the plot was . . . well, I didn't know you could make kidnapping so boring.

But I'm being too critical--it's easy to throw stones at melodramatic teen fluffy fiction from a 40+ years-in-the-future perspective.

I did enjoy this passage, because it broke up the monotony of the endless 'woe are we who are suffering in the attic,' but also because it made me consider what methods I would try to use to sharpen my wits and control my sanity if I were in a solitary confinement situation.

I remembered a book I'd read about a woman in a Russian prison who'd been thrown into a solitary confinement for ten months, and how she kept herself from going crazy by disciplining herself to use her mind every single day. After a while she was able to remember millions of things she'd learned years before and thought she'd forgotten. That was what I should do: discipline my mind. I was falling behind in Latin in school, and I had a paper due for English in three days that I hadn't even started. I could write the paper mentally, then repeat it to myself enough times so I'd remember it word for word when I got back. Then I'd just sit down and write it out without a stop. (p.93)

[tam tam]

i really enjoy NFM- but-this one sticks with me a little less somehow

[Bob Zyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as an 80s kid, today I still remember the excitement, the dread, the mood. Worth the read at a particular formative time.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the many books I took out of the Bay Trail middle school library. A rich boy is one day waiting a bus stop with four other kids his age, two girls and two boys. I can't remember exactly but I think he brags to them that he's rich. A short time later, a van with a couple pulls up and offers the rich boy a ride. The boy really wants to impress his new "friends" and asks if the couple will give them a ride too. Of course it turns out that couple are kidnappers and only wanted the rich boy for ransom. So now the couple has five kids to deal with and it's a big mess for them. It's pretty suspenseful and scary, at least for the middle school reading level.

I don't remember all of the middle parts but all the kids do get away. Two or three of them are shot, but survive and another one is locked in a van for a couple months without food or water but he also survives. The rich kid survives too. He manages to run away while still tied up (I think the kidnappers were going to kill him; this is near to the end of the book after all the other kids have been "taken care of") and a girl finds him. The boy is so hungry that he eats an entire orange, even the peel.

All the kids end up in the hospital (eventually). The boy tries to apologize to all the kids for getting them in "his" trouble, but I'm not sure if they all forgive him. There's also a small "romance" between the rich boy and one the girls (who ends up shot). I think at the end of the book they date.

Not a bad mystery story and it has a sort-of happy ending too.

[Tana Bruggeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have your ever read a book that was sispenceful and then droped it at the end. Well i did, the bok was called "The Solid Gold Kid" by Norma Fox Mazer. This bok is suspenceful but not all the way through the book. There is 198 pages in this book.
The setting of this book isin an American town in the resent past. the protagonis Derek, a high schooler from a rick family, gets kidnapped by the antagonist, the kidnappers wihich are names Peral and Boogie, for ransome. As they try to kid name them at the same time they kidnape 4 others, not pn porpoise. As they are in the van and cant get out, Derek falles in love with on of the others. Bering this book they go through many strugles. One of the main strugles was being stuck in an adic of a forsale house with out food whichle being gagged.
I would give this book a 2 out of 5. This is because of the ending of the book. The ending just tells you what happends and then ends. there is no clif hanger to if. I would only recomend this book to people how can deal without suspence and not get bord. This book is nothing like i have read before. This book is more for teens then younger kids.

[Helmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Solid Gold Kid by Norma Fox Mazer is an amazing story with a lot of drama and suspense. This fictional story about the kidnapping of a teenager is a story that a lot of people can relate to. It shows the different injustices that innocent people suffer throughout their lives. The author also creates characters with very different characteristics which everyone can relate to, and it also makes the story more interesting. I learned from this book that money doesn’t make you more important than other people, and that there are more important things like family and friends to care about. The readers can learn from this book what the gold kid learns, which is to be tolerant and respectful with everyone no matter who they are. I recommend this book to everyone who likes a good thriller full of adventures and excitement, but also with a dramatic love story.

[Evee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Derek is the son of a multi-millionaire, and now his worst fear has been realized. He’s been kidnapped. Not only that, but he’s caused four other kids to be kidnapped with him on accident. Things are not going as planned, for either Derek, or the kidnappers! Only time will tell whether any of them will get out of this situation alive.

Initially I didn’t think that this would be a very well written book, but as I read it I discovered that the characters in this book are very solid, real characters. The successes they have in this book don’t come from deus ex machina, but from them using real thought process to figure out how to help themselves. I admire the characters from this book. I would recommend it to people who like a more realistic story.

Content Warning – Animal death, Violence, Attempted Murder

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The teenaged son of a wealthy man is kidnapped for ransom, and four or five near strangers get hooked in for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I read this ages and ages ago, in the mid or late 70s. But I do recall that it was most definitely not a feel-good book, and didn't patronize its young adult audience -- the end was not exactly bleak, but certainly wasn't the pat, happy ending that a lot of YA books would have settled for.

[Vanellope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. It was OK. I didn't like the way it dealt with race and wealth issues; it didn't feel realistic. And honestly I can't see how someone in that situation would have romance with a stranger as such a high priority. But it wasn't a bad book. I specially liked the smart ideas the kids came up with to try and escape.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rate this book a 5/5 because this book is incredible because this is a mystery book and will leave you hanging at the end of the chapter you would want to find out what happen.The main character of this book is Derek Chapman and he gets him and some other people in a bad mix up situation.

[Pagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read that when I was in the middle school. It was a good book for teenagers. This author has been my-all time favorite because she tend to write about issues that teenagers face.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am 51 years old and STILL remember how profoundly good this book was. There is a particular violent scene that is not for the faint of heart, so I actually recommend an adult is at hand.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

22/25
5 original
4 good topic
5 fast read
4 plot
4 opinion

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this one because I saw a decent review of it, not realizing that it was written in 1978. It's about a teen who is kidnapped with a few others, but it's him the kidnappers want because his father is uber -wealthy. I started it late in my borrowing period and didn't get to finish it before it was due. I was liking it OK, but in a way it seemed predictable (I think it would have been really different in 1978, but nowadays, sadly, kidnapping is all to commonplace).
Anyway, I returned it to MelCat and don't feel particularly compelled to borrow it again.