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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
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| 33607001994386 | Young Adult | COONEY | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Brit has had her driver's license only 11 days when her parents drop her off to stay at her grandmother's house for two weeks while they go on vacation. Little do they know Brit is headed for a three-state road trip with Nannie to pick up her college roommates, Florence, Aurelia, and Daisy, and bring them to their alma mater for their 65th--and most likely final--reunion.
A reluctant recruit at first, Brit is anxious as well as annoyed when she finds herself responsible for her fragile passengers. But things change as she sits behind the wheel up front and listens to "the girls" in the backseat laugh and reminisce about their 65 years of friendship. Inspired by their lifelong loyalty, Brit is willing to do whatever it takes to get the former college roommates to their reunion safely.
From bestselling author Caroline B. Cooney, a heartwarming look at friendship, both young and old.
Author Notes
Caroline Cooney was born in 1947 in Geneva, New York. She studied music, art, and English at various colleges, but never graduated. She began writing while in college. Her young adult books include The Face on the Milk Carton, Whatever Happened to Janie?, The Voice on the Radio, What Janie Found, No Such Person, and the Cheerleaders Series. She received an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults for Driver's Ed and an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers for Twenty Pageants Later. Two of her titles, The Rear View Mirror and The Face on the Milk Cartoon, were made into television movies.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8-10-Sixteen-year-old Brit is illegally driving her Nannie and two other elderly women over three states, trying to get them to their 65th college reunion. The women have shared their lives together and, now frail yet determined, they need Brit's help. Brit, meanwhile, is running on adrenaline. Driving atrociously at first, she is also falsifying where she and Nannie are to her parents, who are on a trip to Alaska. Her cell phone proves to be essential as she talks to Coop, the boy she has loved for ages but who has blatantly snubbed her, and who suddenly takes an interest in her cross-country caper involving a kidnapping of one of "the girls." The kidnap victim, Aurelia, has an evil son, Aston III, who is out to steal his mother's fortune, using any method to do so. The tension peaks when Brit meets Aston face to face. Starting out slowly, the book is both a last-hurrah adventure for the women and a beginning one for Brit, yet it is somewhat trite as all the pieces fit together and everything ends "happily ever after-."-Tracy Karbel, Glenside Public Library District, Glendale Heights, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Cooney's (Code Orange) latest novel accelerates from 0-60 in its first three pages, when Brittany is put in the driver's seat (literally) of a wild scheme masterminded by her normally placid grandmother. Nannie is determined to attend her 65th college reunion in Maine but unable to drive the minivan she has rented. After picking up Nannie's former college roommate Flo, the three then "kidnap" another college roommate, Aurelia, from the nursing home to which her "dreadful wicked son," Aston, has committed her. A novice driver who has had her license for less than two weeks, Brit soon finds herself chauffeuring her 86-year-old passengers along highways from Connecticut to Long Island and on to Massachusetts, along the way accomplishing such feats as backing up, parallel parking, and even driving onto and off of a ferry. Moral support comes from an unexpected source: Brit's long-time crush, Cooper, who has spent the past six months acting distant, but whose frequent cell phone calls to her indicate a different set of feelings. The novel's pacing is well above the speed limit, and Aston turns out to be a formidable villain whose presence lends some urgency to the thoroughly enjoyable novice-driver slapstick. Skillfully woven through the adventure are some thoughtful and touching observations about what it means to be merging onto the highway of adulthood while a loved one's exit ramp is soon approaching. Ages 12-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved