Author: Louise Hawes
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: The Stars of Whistling Ridge by Cindy Baldwin
The Hike to Home by Jess RInker
Rating:
.JPG)
Summary (provided by publisher):Life on the road with Daddy is as good as gets for Hazmat. Together, they've been taking jobs and crisscrossing the US for years. Now Daddy's talking about putting down roots—somewhere Hazmat can go to a real school and make friends. Somewhere Daddy doesn't have to mail-order textbooks about "nature's promise to all women." Somewhere Mom's ashes can rest on a mantel and not on a dashboard.
While everything just keeps changing, sometimes in ways she can't control, Hazmat isn't ready to give up the freedom of long-distance hauling. Sure the road is filled with surprises, from plane crashes and robo trucks to runaway hitchhikers and abandoned babies, but that all makes for great stories! So Hazmat hatches a plan to make sure Daddy's dream never becomes a reality. Because there's only one place Hazmat belongs: in the navigator's seat, right next to Daddy, with the whole country flying by and each day different from the last.
My opinion: I can't say as I've ever encountered a book like this one before. It's more than just the trucker detail (though that's certainly a first). It's a child clinging to a way of life that the world tells them is dying, even as her father seems determined to move on in her best interest. Certainly we've seen child characters go to great lengths, hatch grand plans, to convince their parents that they are right. That small piece of this is familiar. But largely this is the grand story of people on the road: the characters that they meet and the chaos they encounter. The primary characters are strong and dynamic. The secondary characters are complex enough to be interesting. The plot takes some pretty wild turn but we can forgive that in the name of entertainment. A solid read.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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