The Road to Wherever

The Road to Wherever

A middle grade road novel about a boy stuck on a summer trip with his offbeat auto-mechanic cousins―a humor- and heart-filled journey that leads the boy to an unexpected confrontation with some broken-down parts of himself. After eleven-year-old June Ball’s dad disappears without so much as a goodbye note, June’s mother sends him on the road with his adult cousins, mechanics Thomas and Cornell Ball. The Balls are “Ford Men”; their calling in life is to restore old Ford cars―and only Ford cars―that no longer run. And so begins a summer traveling the highways and byways of America, encountering busted-up Fairlanes, Thunderbirds, and Rancheros. They also encounter the cars’ owners, who sometimes need fixing up, too. June doesn’t understand his cousins’ passion for all things Ford. But at every turn, June realizes that this journey is about more than giving neglected classic cars some much-needed TLC―there’s room to care for the broken parts of humans, too. A story of adventure, longing, and growing up from adult novelist, journalist, and All-SEC center for the LSU Tigers, John Ed Bradley. Gr 4–6—June Ball, an 11-year-old tween boy living in Sheboygan Falls, WI, is in for a rough summer. His mom is shipping him off to stay with his dad's first cousins, Larry and Cornell Ball; "Ford men" who own Ball Garage in town and are Ford car fanatics. June has been having a hard time since his dad disappeared a few months prior. A war veteran, his dad struggled with drinking and PTSD since leaving the service and settling into civilian life in Wisconsin. June would prefer to eat, play video games, help his mom at her hair salon, and watch YouTube videos of kids who are surprised by war veteran parents who have been away a long time. When he gets in the Ford pickup truck with Larry and Cornell, he has no idea where they are headed. He asks desperately, "Where are we going?" The cousins reply, "Wherever we are needed." At its heart, this is an optimistic book about dreamers and goal setters who achieve their goals. VERDICT Readers will be transported to summer days and nights where the air is warm and lifelong memories are made. A solid addition to realistic fiction books for middle graders.—Gretchen Schulz, Schaumburg Township Dist. Lib., IL “Combining all the best features of a road trip and a coming-of-age tale . . . The back-roads odyssey, which takes on a ritualistic, dreamlike quality even as it takes the travelers from Wisconsin to Louisiana, of course parallels an inner one as June works through the grief-fueled anger sparked by the sudden disappearance of his dad . . . The journey ends where it began, while leaving the travelers―and readers who go with them―changed.” ― School Library Journal , starred review “Car fanciers will relish the details while the family issues will resonate with many readers . . . Offbeat and upbeat.” ― Kirkus Reviews “ For middle graders new to the road trip genre, there are few better routes to travel than Bradley’s . . . The Ball brothers are the stars here, and Bradley makes them quirky enough to keep the tone light and big-hearted enough to demonstrate that any job done with skill and passion deserves―and gets―respect.” ― Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books John Ed Bradley is the prolific author of several highly praised novels and a memoir, It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium. A former reporter for The Washington Post, he has also written for Esquire, Sports Illustrated, GQ, and Play magazines. He lives with his wife and daughter in Mandeville, Louisiana.