THE MAZE
Rick Walker never knew his parents and since his grandmother died of cancer, he's been lost, alone and searching.
Rick landed himself with a six month stay in the sketchy Blue Canyon Youth Detention Center, a harsh punishment for his
minor offenses. While he is there, he feels threatened by the other boys and he decides to escape. His escape
leads him to "The Maze" in Utah's Canyonland National Park and to Lon Perigrino, a bird biologist studying Condors in the
Maze.
Rick himself is the product of foster home after foster home and while he is not perfect, he is not a hardened criminal
or a dangerous young man. There is an earnestness about Rick's character that endears the reader to him. He is
likeable, believeable and hard working. Though he says he believes life to only be a bunch of dead ends, the reader
suspects Rick to know differently or he wouldn't still be surviving.
Lon Perigrino is a bird biologist working to rehabilitate condors. As the birds become acclimated to the wild,
however, Lon and Rick both are brought together as distant friends with common lives. It is Rick who really grows as
a young man during his time in The Maze and with Lon. Burns said, "As he learns to work with the giant condors that Lon, the
biologist, is attempting to introduce into that area, he learns much about himself--his capacity for growth, endurance, and
commitment" (Burns 1998).
The setting of this book alone is worth the read - hearing about the terrain and the adventures to be had inside of it
will be enjoyable to many young readers. Rick Walker has spent most of his life trying to escape his circumstances.
Finally, he is in a place where there is no further place to escape to - only to face his own life. The Maze itself
represents Rick's own life, and Rick said more than once that it is ironic he ended up in "The Maze." The sense
of flying is used on numerous levels in the book. Rick has always dreamed of flying as a form
of escape, and he comes to help Lon rehabliltate condors to the wild - in a sense, teaching them their own instincts of flying
and survival. Flying is also used to for suspense and adventure in the novel. Rick finally realizes his dream
of flying by hang gliding with Lon, and by the end of the novel, Rick does a solo hang glide in order to resuce Lon from a
dangerous situation.
In the end of the novel, Rick must return to court and face the consequences for running. In this poignant part
of the novel, Rick is able to answer the judge's question that was first posed to him months before by this judge and
he was unable to answer: "Who is Rick Walker?" Rick is a strong character who really learns to embrace his life
and do more than just survive.
Hobbs, Will. The Maze. New York: Murrow Junior Books, 1998. ISBN: 0688150926.
