Running out of Time

Book Report

I read Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It was published in 1995. It's an adventure book about a girl trying to save her city, Clifton by running to Indianapolis to spread the news about diptheria.

Jessie Keyser is the main character. She is a 13-year-old girl living in a frontier village of Clifton, Indiana. At the beginning of the story when Jessie hears from her Mother that there's a disease in Clifton, the Author shows how Jessise's intimidated and scared wether or not the residents can survive. As the story goes on Jessie learns how to believe in herself and develops more confidence. Another briefly mentioned character is her Mom. She's an midwife of the village and also the one who had made Jessie escape from Clifton to tell the people in the outside world that Clifton Village needs help. The story is narrated in third person.

The setting changes throughout the story but the main place the story takes place are Clifton and Indianopolis. Jessie grew up in an village called Clifton where everyone believe

s they live in the 1840's, but the outside world is in the year 1996. As children in Clifton start getting a disease called diptheria, Jessie's Mom tells Jessie, she has to escape to Indianopolis without any of Clifton's man seeing her. During her journey she goes from an village where people mine coal to a whole new world where airplanes fly and electronic toilets flush.

As Jessie's Mother is telling Jessie how she has to go outside Clifton in order to make the other kids in the village survive, she explains to her that they do not live in the 1840's instead the year 1996. Her Mother also explains that Clifton Village is actually a tourist attraction, a replica of a historical village and also that tourists watch the villagers everyday through hidden cameras. She also tells Jessie that in order for the children in the Clifton Village to survive she must find a phone and call Mr. Neely telling him that Clifton needs a cure for diptheria. Whispering to her in the woods, she gives Jessie blue jeans, a T-shirt, food, instructions on how to use a telephone, as well as facts about the outside world that Jessie cannot believe.

On her way to Indianopolis Jessie finds an phone over in the gas station. As soon as she sees the phone she tries calling Mr.Neely and after several unsuccessful attempts, she manages to contact him. As she meets Mr.Neely he brings her to his apartment. After being offered water and told to get some sleep, Jessie wakes up and hears Mr.Neely talking to someone on the phone about "capturing" Jessie. The conflict here is character versus self because she has to overcome her fear in order to escape from Mr.Neely's three story high apartment.

Alarmed by this information, she manages to escape Mr. Neeley's apartment and contact many newspapers and radio stations to hold a news conference on the steps of the Indianapolis capitol. When the reporters show up, she tries to explains the situation but faints shortly there after due to the fact that