The Missing Books In Order

Publication Order of The Missing Books

About The Missing Series:

Margaret Peterson Haddix is an America author who has written more than 30 novels in the Young Adult (YA) genre. Before getting her break as an author, Haddix worked on her degrees in Journalism, Creative Writing and History, as well as working as a newspaper copy editor and a newspaper reporter.

Her novels include the Shadow Children series, The Missing series, and a great collection of standalone novels—such as Full Ride (2013), Game Changer (2012), The Always War (2011), Just Ella (1999), Leaving Fishers (1997), and many others.

Some of her most popular books are from The Missing series. To date there are six books released, and Haddix has announced that she plans to release two more—one in the fall of 2014 and the last one in 2015. The books that have been released so far are Found (2008), Sent (2009), Sabotaged (2010), Torn (2011), Caught (2012), and Risked (2013). The seventh book will be called Revealed, and the eighth and final book: Redeemed.

THE SETTING & CAST

The Missing series takes place in our current modern world, but with one change—time traveling is not only a theorized possibility, but a reality. Jonah, who was adopted, teams up with his non-adopted sister, Katherine, when they discover that someone is kidnapping famous figures from the past and sending them back to the twenty-first century as babies. Furthermore, if Jonah and Katherine fail time will be, literally, destroyed.

Jonah is the main protagonist of the series, although he does have Katherine and others to help him out. He’s thirteen years old and discovers early on in the series that he’s also one of the missing kidnapped children. Over the course of the series he struggles not only to find the other missing children, but to also find out who he really is and in what time period he belongs.

Katherine is Jonah’s non-biological sister. She’s one year younger than him and decides to help him in his adventures to find the other missing children and to find out who Jonah really is.

Angela DuPre is one of the few adults to aid Jonah and Katherine on their mission to restore the missing children, because she was one of the few people to have seen the missing children before the event was covered up and hidden from public knowledge.

JB is a time traveler from the future, who helps Jonah and Katherine learn the rules of time traveling. Originally, he was the son of Albert and Mileva Einstein, but his mother sent him forward in time to a later period when his mental illness could be properly treated.

Besides Jonah, the other missing children in the series include Chip Winston, Alex Polchak, Andrea Crowell, Brendan, Antonio, Dalton Sullivan, Daniella McCarthy, and Gavin Danes. (Their “true” identities of which famous person each child represents has been omitted in order to preserve suspense for the reader.)

In the series there are two main antagonists:

First are the pair of Gary and Hodge, who are the ones responsible for kidnapping all the missing children and dumping them all in the twenty-first century; secondly, is Sam Chase. Sam used to work with JB, and he has the ability to split and manipulate time. He, like JB, is from the future, and comes back in time to, he claims, help Jonah and Katherine.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE MISSING BOOKS

Found is the first book in the Missing series, and is where we first meet Jonah, Katherine, and Jonah’s friend Chip. Jonah and Chip receive each receive two mysterious letters—the first of which says “You are one of the missing” and the second, “Beware! They’re coming back to get you.” Just like that, the three children are thrown into a vast conspiracy involving the FBI and time-traveling smugglers. Both sides desperately want Jonah and Chip (because they are missing children), but as events progress and escalate, the boys aren’t so sure of which side they want to choose—if either.

Sent is the direct sequel, picking up right where Found left off. Having learned that they are kidnapped children from the past, Chip and (another of the missing children) Alex are forced back to their rightful time period of 15th century London. Not wanting to lose their friends (and still not entirely sure of what’s going on), Jonah and Katherine piggy back on the trip, finding themselves in London in 1483. Chip and Alex are then informed of their true identities and are told that if they set history “right”, they can go back home—but how can they do that when, in order to follow the original course of history, they have to die?

The other novels—Sabotaged, Torn, Caught, and Risked—continue with Jonah and Katherine’s journey to correct history and rescue all of the missing children.

Haddix has announced that, as the title implies, in Revealed Jonah will finally learn what famous person from history he is.

The plotline of the eighth and final book, Redeemed has yet to be released, but is slotted to come out in 2015.

RECEPTION, REVIEWS, & FINAL THOUGHTS

Haddix provides yet another satisfying adventure for young readers with her series, The Missing. As with Shadow Children and some of her other books, she brings a delightfully fun and intriguing plot to anyone’s library. Many children are guaranteed to enjoy such a fun story such as time travel, and the added suspense of finding and rescuing the missing children is certain to entertain and thrill.

Some adults might also enjoy the series—some librarians have noted that although some of the action sequences might be a little lacking (compared to what older audiences are more accustomed to), it’s not enough to take away from your overall interest in the plot and characters. Additionally, Haddix’s new twist on time travel might be dissatisfying for some, since she adopts a theory where the universe is much more flexible than it’s shown to be in other time travel series. For example, time and history don’t start to get all messed up unless something major happens—such as someone being killed or surviving when they’re not supposed to.

Nonetheless, The Missing series is a definite must-read for those of a young audience who want an adventure story with a fairly strong plot and characters to support it—or for anyone of any ages. As always, Haddix is guaranteed to entertain.

One Response to “The Missing”

1. Anonymous: 9 years ago

   I’ve only just finished Found but i was amazing. I’m definitely getting the next one.

   Reply