As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth

by Lynne Rae Perkins

Teenage Ry is stranded in Montana after a mishap with a train (short story: it left... read more

Teenage Ry is stranded in Montana after a mishap with a train (short story: it left without him). Ry stumbles into the nearest town and has the good fortune to meet Del, a man with a kind heart and wanderlust. He’s willing to drive Ry home to Wisconsin (a memorable, funny road trip), and then continues to help Ry after they arrive to discover Ry’s grandfather—in charge of things while Ry’s parents are sailing incommunicado in the Caribbean—is missing. Ry and Del set off to find Ry’s parents, traveling by car, small plane ( really small, Ry nervously obsesses) and boat, relying on friends of Del’s and their own resourcefulness each step of the way. Ry is challenged to trust himself and trust others, acknowledge his fears but not let them limit him, and roll with whatever the next moment brings in Lynne Rae Perkins’s uplifting, singular story. In the process he discovers how strangers become friends, and how home and family are concepts that expand with his heart in a singular novel brimming with warmth and humor. Ry’s travels comprises the primary storyline, but subplots follow other journeys involving Ry’s grandfather, his parents, and his family’s lost dogs (the canines’ adventures are told in segments presented in graphic novel form). (Age 12 and older)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2011

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