Blink and Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones

Reviewed by Lori
Blink & Caution
Title: Blink and Caution

Author: Tim Wynne-Jones

Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 50958

Description: Two teenagers who are living on the streets and barely getting by become involved in a complicated criminal plot, and make an unexpected connection with each other.

***Canadian***

Rubric Rating: Level 2: Like It

Why I Read It: The title was interesting and I have read other Wynne-Jones novels so I thought I would check out this book.

Lori's Notes: Two teens, nicknamed Blink and Caution, find their lives entwined when they become part of a "kidnapping." Blink, who suffers from Tourette's syndrome, is pilfering food from a Toronto hotel when he finds himself in the middle of a mystery after witnessing an apparent "crime in progress."  Caution, a girl who ends up in Toronto after the accidental death of her brother (something she thinks is her fault), decides to help Blink after pick pocketing him at the train station.  Travelling by train across eastern Ontario to Kingston, the duo must discover what is really happening and outrun the thugs who are chasing them.  The story has a slow beginning and details life for these youths living on the streets in Toronto.  The book picks up steam once Blink and Caution meet and you feel like the story finally begins.  In the end Blink and Caution must both decide whether to return to the life they were living on the streets or accept their past and move forward.

Recommended Readers: Grade 9 and Up.  Would be good for Canadian Lit classes.  Anyone living in Toronto or Eastern Ontario may recognize some of the locations.

Themes: Homelessness, Crime and Innocence, Big Brother, Friendship, Family, Mystery, Abuse, Teens Solving Crime, Runaways, Emotional Issues, Death, Kidnapping, Identity.

Cross-Genre Links:
Movie: The Outsiders (1983)
Music: Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins
Music: Nobody's Home by Avril Lavigne

Possible Discussion or Essay Topics:

  • How does Caution choose her nick name?
  • Why does she seem to be so self-destructive?
  • Caution seems to think she deserves to be with someone who is abusing her, possibly as a way to punish herself for her role in her brother's death, is this fair?
  • Why doesn't Blink go to the police?
  • What options do Blink and Caution have?  Do they need to live on the street?
  • How do Blink and Caution become involved in the kidnapping?
  • What is Tourette's Syndrome?  How does this condition affect Blink?

Other Titles by Tim Wynne-Jones:
The Uninvited
The Boy in the Burning House
A Thief in the House of Memory
Some of the Kinder Planets


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