Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Road Trip

by Gary and Jim Paulsen
January 29, 2013

What a cute and funny book.
I'm on a quest to read as many Juv and Teen books published in 2013 as I can so that when it comes time for the "best of" lists and the Newbery/Printz discussions I will be in the know.

This one probably won't be in either category.  I liked it a lot, but it isn't in "The Best" category.

Jim Paulsen is Gary Paulsen's adult son.  One day he got a new dog. Gary, for some reason, wrote a piece of a story about a dog, a boy, and the boy's father and sent it to Jim.  Jim wrote back, continuing the story. This went on and on, back and forth, until the two Paulsens had a book.
They didn't start out to write one, but Road Trip was the result.



"Dad and Ben haven't been getting along recently and Dad hopes a road trip to rescue a border collie will help them reconnect. But Ben is on to Dad's plan and invites Ben's thuggish buddy, Theo. The family dog, Atticus, comes along too and the story is told by Ben and Atticus. When their truck breaks down, they commandeer an old school bus, along with its mechanic, Gus. Next, they pick up Mia, a waitress escaping a tense situation. Only sharp-eyed Atticus realizes that Theo is on the run—and someone is following them. " Description from Amazon


Some of the chapters are told from the viewpoint of Atticus the dog. I thought these were kind of unnecessary. They did help us learn the motives behind some of the characters. Atticus serves as a kind of chorus. But the story could have been told without knowing specificlaly what Atticus thought.

Still, it was funny and I'm glad to have read another enjoyable Gary Paulsen book.

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