Different view of the Witness Protection Program. This is from the view of a young boy through his journals. ( )

This was a really easy read, and somewhat predictable. It's a nice story, though I suppose I'm used to stories with a bit more detail, but it's a book for the younger crowd, so I think I set my expectations a little too high. ( )

Review: Zach’s Lie by Roland Smith.

This book shows how drugs can really mess up your life and it also explains all the different ways to change your identity. The story was an adventure and survival situation for a mother and two children who did nothing criminally wrong but had to pay the price of losing their identity. The colorful descriptive context gives a vivid picture of what was happening and how emotions kept the reader connected to the characters. The only flaw about the book was the ending. I wish the author could have expanded more on the ending and drawn it out a little longer.

The story is based on the main character, Jack Osborn, a thirteen year old boy, his older sister Joanne and their mother are forced into the Witness Protection Program. Jack’s father opened his own small airplane business and for awhile was doing good then he ran into some financial trouble and started smuggling drugs and got caught and was making a deal with the Federal Government to testify against the big-pin drug lords. This hurt the family in many ways especially Jack because he adored his father.

The story goes on with the Osborn Family having their names changed and moved to a different location. They have now become Zach, Wanda and Mrs. Granger starting a new life with a lower income status that they weren’t accustom to. As the story goes on Zach’s mother and sister seemed to adjust to their new surroundings but Zach was struggling. Making new friends for Zach was hard just as losing his dad and not knowing if he would ever see him again. After a while he did meet Catalin at school and had a crush on her and he also met an older man, Sam Sebesta who was a custodian at his school who seemed to care about him and his family. Sam also introduced Zach to the local Basque sheep herders who lived in the hills and high pastures above the small town they moved to.

Many issues came up for Zach and he didn’t know how to handle them. Throughout the rest of the story there are times of adventure for Zach, he encountered a brawl with a bully at school, he enjoyed eating Basque food at the Inn where Sam lived, and kept writing in his journal to harbor his thoughts just as had seen his father doing from time to time. I felt sad for Zach because I could feel his emotions and what he was going through. This is a good book for teens and adults to read because it shows just how teens and parents can make bad mistakes that cost a family pain and damage for one another.

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A thriller...semi-complicated plot for a middle school classroom: drug cartels, witness protection program, kidnappers, etc. ( )

This boook is VERY inetsting because in evey chapter and page is inersting and action pack ( )