Margaret Peterson Haddix's The Missing: Revealed

Have you ever felt out of place, even in your own home? Maybe you’re adopted, or feel like you aren’t appreciated. Maybe you’re just nothing like your parents and siblings. In Margaret Peterson Haddix’s The Missing: Revealed, Jonah and the readers learn that family isn’t always who you’re related to, but that it’s really who cares about you. This is taught through the story of Jonah, a kid stolen from the past and adopted by a family in the 21st century. Jonah must travel through time to save his sister from kidnappers and a famous pilot named Charles Lindbergh, and fix time itself. Near the beginning of the book, Jonah desperately searches for his sister after she’s been kidnapped by Charles Lindbergh. This scene shows how Jonah genuinely
This scene is significant because it shows that Jonah loves and cares about his parents (and vice versa) because they are his family, even if they aren’t technically related. The author crafts dialogue so Jonah indirectly tells the reader how he’s feeling, instead of Haddix doing it herself. “No matter what, my parents were supposed to be my parents!” (Haddix 278). Once again, Jonah is virtually alone during this scene. The only other reason Jonah would say this is to convince someone that he likes his parents. However, the only other person around is baby Jonah. Therefore, there would be no reason for Jonah to say this without really meaning it. After this, he proceeds to deliver himself as a baby to his parents, because he wants them to be happy and have a child. “But there was still one thing he could fix… One thing that would be perfect and right and good, even as everything else went wrong. He could deliver the baby version of himself to Mom and Dad.” (Haddix 279). Jonah knows that a child would make his parents happy, and Jonah decides to deliver a child to his parents. Therefore, Jonah cares enough about his parents to intentionally make them