August 1, 2009
Gr 7-10-This book has as rocky a start as the road trip it describes. Emma, 16, feels disconnected from her family of academics and brilliant people. Rather than compete for attention, she's happier being alone. Then she discovers a reason for her feeling of isolation. She had a twin brother who died two days after they were born. Emma, determined to find out more, sets off on a road trip from New York State to North Carolina to see her brother's grave. When her car breaks down in New Jersey, she calls her neighbor Peter, who arrives in a stolen yellow convertible. Along the way, Emma adopts a stray dog, makes peace with her family, and learns that there's more to Peter than his interest in maps and the Civil War. Told in alternating chapters by Emma and Peter, the plot moves jerkily from the present to the past, then back to the present. After an uneven beginning, however, the novel becomes more engaging as Emma seeks answers to why she was never told about her brother."Melissa Rabey, Frederick County Public Libraries, Frederick, MD"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
June 1, 2009
Grades 8-11 Emma feels normal (read: average) and isolated in her academic-driven family. When she discovers the birth certificate of her long-dead twin brother, the feelings suddenly make sense. The boy-next-door-ish Peter fits in with Emmas family, but cant connect with his fathera small-town cop unable to grasp Peters obsession with maps and desire to see the world. Peter and Emma feel the need to escape. Can anyone say road trip? Emma enlists Peters help driving from an upstate New York college town to the North Carolina cemetery where her brother is buried. Like all good road novels, this one is chock full of self-discovery. However, theres no grand epiphany or flashy finale. Just like the bond they eventually share, their personal growth is measured, constant, and lasting. Nuanced, thoughtful, and delivered in authentic teen voices (refreshingly free of the hipster-speak some YA novels drown in), this is a book to take ones time with.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)