Hit the Road

by Caroline B. Cooney

Book Review

Publishers Weekly :

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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)

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School Library Journal :

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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 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 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

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*Starred Review*

Gr. 6-9. Brit is a brand new driver when her parents send her to stay with grandmother Nannie while they're off on a cruise. She quickly learns she's going to have to put her driving to the test because Nannie and her college roommates, Florence and Aurelia, are determined to go to their sixty-fifth college reunion. Thus begins an on-the-road, buddy story that precisely captures the impatience--and the warmth--of teenagers, as well as the fragility and stubborn audacity that comes with age. Bullied by Nannie, whose car keys have been taken from her, Brit finds herself driving through the greater Northeast to fulfill her grandmother's plans, which include hiding the trip from Brit's parents, finding Flo's house, and kidnapping Aurelia from the nursing home where her son, Aston, has stashed her. There are plenty of over-the-top moments, and Aston is a villain of the Snidely Whiplash variety. But Cooney masterfully combines nonstop, cleverly plotted action with heartfelt emotion; Brit realistically becomes frustrated with impediments that come with age, even as she valiantly protects her charges. Perhaps it takes an adult to empathize with the aging process, but Brit comes as close as possible to understanding, and she'll make teen readers realize that what really separates them from the elderly is the fact that they are experiencing doors opening, while older people are watching them close. For another on-the-road, cross-generational tale, suggest Joan Bauer's Rules of the Road (1998).
IleneCooper.

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