Freeze Tag

by Caroline B. Cooney

Book Overview

Jealousy turns deadly in this chilling story from the author of Whatever Happened to Janie? As kids, Meghan, West, and Lannie played freeze tag--but with Lannie, nothing was normal. With one touch,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590456814
• ISBN13: 9780590456814
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.3" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent

This is one of the better 'young adult' books I've ever read. I put that in italics because even when I read it years ago the moral conundrum at the end left me conflicted for days. On one hand you have this purely evil entity, Lannie (and kudos to Ms. Cooney for writing a character this genuinely frightening), who can and will kill anyone she feels like killing. On the other hand, you see her pain, you see how she has basically been betrayed by every single person she has encountered in her life. Then you have the 'hero' Meghan, your average popular golden girl, who finds herself victimized, and yet almost empathizing with her tormentor. The final scene can be called a cop-out or the most intriguing character development. I dare you not to wonder what happens after the final sentence; not to write your own "final" chapter. I'm sure lots of us would have loved for Ms. Cooney to write a sequel; personally I think it's better leaving it where it is. I'd love to see this in film version, if Hollywood doesn't wreck it with a neatly tied up ending, and lots of predictable pretty faces in the cast.

A Metaphor for Our Times

That is not a sparkler Lannie is holding on the cover--it's her fingertip. That is not fire shooting from her fingertip--it is icy crystals. When Lannie plays Freeze Tag, it is really freeze tag. The other neighborhood children find out late one evening when it is still warm. The point of the game is to "freeze" in position when tagged, the more ridiculous, the better. Only these last minutes of daylight bring a real freeze. Lannie tags them and they are frozen! She leaves them long enough so they know what happened to them, saving Meghan for last to unfreeze. She extracts a promise from West, the older boy to "love me best" when she asks it of him. Of course he promises--he wants Meghan unfrozen! When he is a senior and Meghan a sophomore, West and Meghan fall madly in love with each other. Giving them just a few weeks to get a rhythm going in their relationship, Lannie intercedes one day and claims West. The smallest girl in the sophomore class, Lannie is wispy and pale with clumpy, dead hair, and the palest eyes that can see right into you. It takes a simple demonstration before West gives in to Lannie. West is the oldest child in a happy family of Trevors, the place where neighborhood kids meet, where they are always welcome. Meghan is an only child with under-appreciated parents who truly love her. Meghan lives next door to the Trevors, is best friends with Tuesday, West's sister who is Meghan's age. Lannie is also an only child, only this only child is not loved. She lives diagonally across the street and watches all the happiness and love, frozen from within her own home, frozen from without by neighborhood children, and worst, frozen in her own heart. Meghan, the narrator, shares the fact that she has never seen either of Lannie's parents speak to her, much less hug her. She feels sorry for Lannie but not enough to seek her friendship, especially after the freezing episode, about which no one ever speaks. Words have magic and spoken, they have power to make things so. These are just the first few pages and back-story of this profound and lyrical novel for young adults. I have given no spoilers. The story actually begins when Lannie claims West as her own. That is when the emotional blizzard hits. Lannie becomes a metaphor for all the unloved, unwanted, neglected children who become school shooters at worst and drug addicts, prostitutes, alcoholics, and violent offenders. Statistics are depressing. (Of course, I am not including the many who experience nightmares but survive and make a life.) This is the story of those children who know absolutely no love. I cannot reveal how Cooney resolves this situation, except to say that evil begets evil, and a frozen heart can damage others. Yet....

the best book ive read in 2 years!!!

i picked up this book (...). I LOVED IT!!!! the characters and setting are so vid and real to me. the hero,meghan, is a normal teen age girl,west is her perfict bf, and lannie,is the horrible,evil,revenge minded girl with this horrific power to freeze people,to death if she wanted to.she takes west away, and thretens to freeze meghan if she saw west. and lannie is always ready to fofil her terrible promise. i really hope theres a sequil.

I Want a Sequel

I really like the book Freeze Tag. It was a page turner and kept me interested in the situation. I hope that the author writes a sequel because it would be great if Meghan got back with West. So, please hopefully the author gets our opinions and starts writing another one!

Amazing, Superb

I have just finished this book and i think it is great! I have read 5 other books by this author they were all great but this i have to say was the best. This book had a bad end not because it is poorly written (very good writing in fact) but because the reader wants to read more. I really want a sequel to this book and i hope more people had the joy i had when i read this book. If you are wondering what it is about it is simply love and thrill.