The hideout / Eve Bunting.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Twelve-year-old Andy feels he would be better off with his father in England than in his San Francisco home with his mother and her new husband. To raise the money needed to finance his trip to England, he stages his own kidnapping, but the plan backfires when someone decides to make the kidnapping a reality. "A common family situation becomes action-filled drama in Bunting's capable hands."-Booklist

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-7-By Eve Bunting. Twelve-year-old Andy Dubin, who has left his home, finds a key to a seldom-used penthouse in a hotel. He thinks he has discovered the perfect hideout, but suddenly he is plunged into the most terrifying experience of his life. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 5-7. Andy has a problem with fathers. He misses his real dad, an archaeologist living in England. Then there's his stepdad, whom Andy dislikes; he calls him Paul Paws because he's always touching Andy's mom. And though Andy loves his mom, he doesn't believe her when she says his father doesn't want Andy to join him on his dig. In a desperate attempt to get away from Paul and to join his father, Andy steals some money, and through a little ingenuity and a lot of luck, winds up hiding in the Tower Suite at the Countess International Hotel in San Francisco. To get the money for a ticket to London, Andy decides to stage his own kidnapping. By the time he realizes that it's a terrible idea, a hotel employee who has discovered him decides it's a pretty good one, and Andy finds himself in the back of a van, a real kidnap victim. Bunting dispenses information slowly; readers do not find out until the middle of the book just why Andy has run away. This careful plotting overcomes some of the story's more obvious ploys--Andy luckily has a walkie-talkie with him when he's kidnapped, for instance. There's some emotional depth, too, as Andy's confusion about Paul's place in his life eventually turns to understanding. A common family situation becomes an action-filled drama in Bunting's capable hands. ~--Ilene Cooper

Horn Book Review

When Andy, who feels unappreciated by his mother and new stepfather, is skulking about in the lobby of a swank hotel, he finds the key to a luxurious suite and discovers the perfect place to hide until he can flee to his real father. The novelty of hiding out in a hotel and the scary, fast-paced story will entertain readers. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

In a plot device that is becoming familiar, a new stepparent is the reason that a child--here it's 12-year-old Andy, in San Francisco--ventures into the streets, where he discovers that the world is more wicked than anything he has faced at home. Having run away, Andy makes camp in the luxury suite of a nearby hotel, to which he has found a key. He periodically phones his real father, in London, hoping he'll send air fare. But Fred (of the hotel staff) cuts short Andy's plans, homing in on his faked kidnapping and making it all too real. Shortwave radio is the means for Andy's rescue; Paul, the ""wicked"" stepfather, is forgiven. Largely contrived, and, though Andy's uneasiness with his mother and Paul's sexuality is clearly compelling, any realistic exploration of his perfectly believable feelings is pushed aside to make room for the hollow, feel-good ending. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.