By: Angela Macias
@Angela_owlfeed
The book titled “The Girl in the Box”, by Ouida Sebestyen, is about subjects that perhaps many teens don’t read about. It has a pretty scary topic, fear of not being rescued, and dying. But this book makes it seem less scary. It’s still pretty horrifying but Jackie Mcgee, a character in the book, adds humour and love into the story. She only has a typewriter to express her story and feelings.
The story is about a girl (Jackie Mcgee) who gets kidnapped during an argument with her friend, April. It was late at night, and she was distracted by her own confusion with the altercation between her and April.
Jackie is now locked up in a cellar and all she has is a typewriter and paper to type with. She feels around the room to see what’s there, and finds a big jar filled with water and a bag of pastries. She uses the typewriter as a distraction. She does this so that it seems she’s doing what she normally does at home. The difference from what she usually writes is, she writes plays for school but while being trapped in a box, she writes letters to her family, friends and teacher.
She then writes letters to people in her life like her mother, father, teacher and her friends. She even writes to the officials, explaining her surroundings which is nothing but concrete walls and a slit of light coming from the doors.
This is where she sends her letters and messages, where she hopes someone can find her somehow. That little slit of light is what gives her a sense of relief, hope and happiness. It reminds her that it could be light coming from the outside. It’s the only thing that isn’t dark and cold, and it’s a reminder that she is still alive.
Jackie takes a bad situation and makes the best of it. She likes to add many jokes on the horrible things going on. She also writes little stories about another group of people who in reality are her and her two friends April and Zack. She tries to apply humor to the story to create a calm environment for both her and the reader.
The topic of the story is about people who are going through something serious and how they handle it, going through something like kidnapping, and what goes through their mind. Now, I don’t want to spoil the ending for those of you who are interested in this book, so i will leave it at that.