Chasing the Falconers

Chasing the Falconers (2005) is the first book in the middle grade adventure series On the Run by Gordon Korman. The saga chronicles the attempts of siblings Aiden and Meg Falconer to clear their parents of wrongdoing while outrunning and outwitting the authorities who pursue them. The series includes six books published between 2005 and 2006. Korman has written over 100 books for children, middle grade, and young adult readers. He has sold over 30 million books worldwide. Korman continues the story of Aiden and Meg in a follow-up three-book series entitled Kidnapped, in which Meg is taken and Aiden must hunt her captors while uncovering how their motives are linked to his family’s “criminal” past.

This guide refers to the 2005 Scholastic edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss children in juvenile detention, adults in a maximum-security prison, physical violence, child abuse, and manslaughter.

Plot Summary

Chasing the Falconers opens at Sunnydale Farm, a juvenile corrections facility in Nebraska. Fifteen-year-old Aiden Falconer and his 11-year-old sister, Margaret, or “Meg,” have been living there ever since their parents were tried and convicted of treason. During the trial, Aiden’s parents claimed that a man named Frank Lindenauer had recruited them to work for the CIA and that Lindenauer could prove they were not only innocent but also working for the Americans.