WHEN I HIT THE ROAD

Rising seventh grader Sam is embarking on a road trip to beat all others.

Pressured into visiting her recently widowed grandmother, Sam discovers that she will be accompanying the feisty elderly lady and two other companions—Gram’s similarly exuberant and aged pickleball partner, Mimi, and Mimi’s hunky eighth grade grandson, Brandon—on a very quirky tour of places no one would ever want to visit in Florida. Stops include an alligator-infested road where their car breaks down, an empty church where they spend an uncomfortable night, a flooded, run-down cabin in a deluge, and a filthy, not-barbecue joint. Many of the stops are interrupted by anxious calls from Sam’s controlling, stressed-out, workaholic mom, who’s trying to rein in the previously staid, seemingly gone-wild Gram. But it’s a voyage of discovery for Sam, who finds she’s not really the inept person she viewed herself as. Sam documents all the bizarre misadventures in letters she’s writing (at her mother’s determined urging) to her future self, revealing both her doubts about her capabilities and her growing understanding of how universal self-doubt is. Despite these insights, the story is mostly fluff and fun: a wild, lighthearted exploration of a summer trip to remember. The small cast of seemingly white characters verge on caricatures, contributing to the overall goofiness of the story.

A perfect beach read: summery and silly.