Takers and Returners

by Carol Beach York

An atmosphere of tension and anxiety is sustained throughout this skillfully written suspense in which children are drawn into a game that none of them will ever win. The game that Julian devised to relieve the boredom of summer—the game of Takers and Returners—divided the group into objects stolen from neighboring people and places by one team must be returned by the other. Were it not for Julian's aura of leadership, none of the friends would have ever let the game get out of hand the way it did.

Genres: Fiction, Juvenile, Young Adult

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Jessica]

For a long time I was plagued with the memory of a book I'd read in elementary school about a group of kids that devises a "borrowing" game with disastrous consequences; I could remember all these little details but couldn't for the LIFE of me remember the title or author, and I couldn't find any information about it online, nor could anyone I described it to identify the book for me. Enter a friend in library school who plugged my description into a fancypants librarian search engine and came back with the title, which I proceeded to order from half.com. It's exactly as I remembered it: a group of kids counters summertime boredom by inventing a game where one team steals an item and the other team has to return it before the adults figure out what's going on. It starts out simply enough but quickly turns into a high-stakes game, with one team stealing a car and the other team stealing an elderly neighbor's beloved dog. Of course, the kids ultimately learn a big lesson. It's not a bad little story, but not a particularly good one either, and I have no idea why its storyline stayed with me so long.

[Dioscita]

Another of my childhood favorites, I still find this hauntingly wonderful.

[Capn]

NOPE, THE DOG BITES IT IN THE END. I'm not hiding this behind tags.

Two families visit the same old lakeside community year after year: the Carters (Cam, Ellen and Kitty, ages 14, 13 and 12 respectively) and their cousins Julian (15) and Jenny (7). Andy Foster (12) is a dim and eager-to-please local boy they meet up with annually. And they all struggle to find things to do.

The real moral of this story is for the parents: don't have bullshit vacations like this. The kids are bored. It's boring. It's pointless. Why not try something new for a change? I feel like they brought this upon themselves.

Basically, bored kids = trouble, and they decide to create a "we steal it, you return it" game between them (they split into two teams). And it escalates. And of course the kids have VERY POOR JUDGMENT because they are kids, and they take ridiculous risks and it, of course, all ends in a car crash AND the death of the dog, Sammy, sole companion to a now-heartbroken spinster who, and this was my least favourite part, lives alone and in mourning in the house in the tiny hamlet all the summers afterwards.

It's getting 2 stars because it was concise, pertly written, and managed to hold my attention for a single sitting. It's lucky to get those 2 stars, though, because I'm tired of THE DOG DIES trope.

I'm not a young person any more, and I can think of maybe just one sad incident where a dog tragically died as a direct result of poor judgment (DON'T TAKE YOUR DOG TO FIREWORKS DISPLAYS. DOGS DON'T LIKE FIREWORKS. IF THEY HAVE HITHERTO TOLERATED THEM, THEY MIGHT SUDDENLY PANIC AND RUN INTO TRAFFIC AND DIE. It has happened). I wasn't even there, but I heard about it, and I'm still sad, 30 years on. But the point is - children's authors need to stop pulling out "the dog dies" as a go-to plot point. It's just mean-spirited and a cheap thrill.

[Chris]

One of my favorite books from elementary school. Only today did I finally find the name of it.

[Dee]

I remember fighting this book at summer camp in the year 2000 I just graduated Jr high school and was heading to the 9th grade that September. The name of the book and the cover really stood out so I grabbed it and I read it. The story stuck in my mind I even brought it home with me from summer camp to New York. I had to look for a few years but unfortunately there was a fire in my apartment and the book was destroyed. So happy I found it again. 19 years later.

[Heather Innes]

I read this book (first edition) when I was maybe 10 and it ruined me.

[Lindsay]

This book has been hanging out in my memories because I’m pretty sure I read it for school in Jr High. What an odd book to have teenagers read.

[Livvie (hiatus)]

My mom made me read this over the summer when I was 7. Finally got around to rereading it. Lots of memories. Still, two thumbs up.