If You Like...Books About Road Trips

There is nothing better than hitting the open road during the summertime! Packing your bags, grabbing some tunes, and setting out to explore new places. If you like road trips or reading books about travel adventures, here are a few great middle grade books to add to your must-read list for the summer!

The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane

By Kate O'Shaughnessy

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2020.

Maybelle Lane has never met her dad but she has an old voicemail message of his voice in her collection of sounds. One day she hears his voice on the radio and realizes that he is a DJ. When he announces that he will be judging a singing contest in Nashville, Maybelle is determined to compete. She signs up, finds someone to drive her, and sets out on a road trip to Nashville to finally meet her dad.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

By Dan Gemeinhart

New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2019.

Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have been living in an old converted school for five years, constantly on the go, trying to escape the memories of the accident that killed Coyote's mom and sisters. When Coyote learns that a park near her old home is getting demolished, she knows she needs to return to get the special memory box that she buried there.

Clean Getaway

By Nic Stone

New York : Crown Books for Young Readers, 2020.

Scoob sets out on an impromptu road trip down memory lane with his G'ma in her new RV. As they travel, Scoob learns more about how people have not always been friendly or welcoming to the Black community. The trip starts to get strange when G'ma begins avoiding calls from Scoob's dad and is constantly changing their license plate.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Peach Pie

By Erin Downing

New York: Pixel Ink, 2021.

The Peach family sets out on a summer road trip around the country to sell pies in their new food truck. This was always a dream of their mother's before she passed away and they are determined to accomplish it together. The only problem is, none of them know how to bake.

Wrong Way Summer

By Heidi Lang

New York : Amulet Books, 2020.

Claire's father has always told her and her brother outlandish tales about their absent mother. When he decides to sell their home and moves the family into a converted van, she begins growing tired of the stories and wants to find out the truth. As they take the ultimate road trip around the country, Claire is faced with the choice to continue to go along with the stories or force her family to face what really happened to her mom.

Comments

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester 2008

J Fiction 328 pages I almost didn't finish this book. I got to Chapter 4, and was just about ready to quit (a kind of slow story about a girl, name of Piper McCloud, who discovers she can fly, parents freak out, she becomes a social outcast, yadda, yadda) but suddenly, right there in Chapter 4, the story takes a sharp turn and becomes really interesting . Piper finds herself in the company of others like her, but not "fliers", and under the care and authority of Dr. Hellion. I won't even tell you any more. Read this book. Forester does a great job of keeping you wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad? Piper is a likeable, strong, endearing character that girl readers will enjoy. But don't NOT give it to boys! The main male character is an extremely intelligent young man who is one of the ones you wonder about . . . good or bad? This is a good one, well worth your time.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

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