A first-time author and a first-time illustrator make a promising debut in a gentle, realistic portrayal of a father-son relationship. The baseball-capped narrator describes a car trip with his dad in which the two drive all night to get to the mountains for a camping trip. Listening to a baseball game on the radio eats up the miles for a while but once they get out of the station's range, the two must work together to keep each other awake by telling stories, singing cowboy songs and playing alphabet games. It's clear that they would enjoy each other's company at any time but the night driving awakens a sense of adventure and heightens the closeness between them. Peter McCarty's dramatic black-and-white pencil illustrations aptly depict scenes lit only by headlights and moonlight, echoing the intimate mood of the text. (Ages 4-8)

A father and son drive into the night. As the sky turns shades of deep blue and purple they watch for night animals, swap baseball stories, and keep a lookout for eighteen wheelers. But they have miles to go before they can sleep, and it's a real challenge to stay awake for a whole night of driving.

Celebrating the relationship between a father and his son, John Coy's spare, poetic text and Peter McCarty's striking black-and-white drawings (complete with gas pumps, cafes, and truck stops) capture the warmth and nostalgia of a very special road trip.