All the Way to Mexico [Paperback]

Norma Charles (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

Jacob Armstrong is 12 and he’s on a honeymoon. The honeymoon is his mother’s. Accompanying them are her new husband, Fred Finkle, and Fred’s annoying kids, ten-year-old Barney and eight-year-old Sam, and Jacob’s rebellious 15-year-old sister, Minerva. They’re heading from Vancouver through Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, all the way to Mexico in a pale blue 1982 Mercury Montego station wagon. So begins Norma Charles’s funny and thoughtful new novel for kids – especially boys – ages 8 to 13. Each child has a different strategy for getting through the trip: Barney tells nonstop cow jokes; Sam invents his own world with action figures; Minerva is permanently plugged into her CD player. And Jacob? He hugs his soccer ball, hoping one day to become a star player. When they finally arrive in Mexico, the family stays in a tourist trap without a single soccer game. How will he survive? Eventually the new family not only survives, but develops bonds that pull them closer together in this sweet story told from Jacob's wry perspective.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-6-Jacob's Jamaican mother and gangly, redheaded Fred Finkle are mushy newlyweds. As if that weren't enough to make a soccer-loving 12-year-old nauseated, Fred and his two freckled, boring kids are joining Jacob, his older sister, and his mother on a trip from Vancouver to Mexico in a crowded old station wagon, camping all the way. Hour upon hour, Jacob is tormented by cow jokes, an obsession of 10-year-old Barney Finkle, and by eight-year-old Sam's colossal collection of action figures. The story doesn't offer much in the way of plot: there's a lot of driving, camping, driving, camping, minimal sightseeing, and talking. The author overlooks opportunities for geographical description and, more importantly, for character development. These six people are for the most part an entertaining assemblage of quirks. Their evolution into a more tolerant and upbeat group seems as bumpy as the border-town roads. Jacob's sudden selfless behavior defies credibility. A more amusing blended-family story that contains subtle insights and characters with realistic conflicted feelings is P. J. Petersen's I Hate Weddings (Dutton, 2000). Still, readers who want a break from the demands of a complex plot may well enjoy a dip into this lightly handled family drama that's brimming with bovine humor.--Susan Weitz, Tompkins County Public Library, Ithaca, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Raincoast Books; First Edition edition (September 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551925982
• ISBN-13: 978-1551925981
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,879,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Norma Charles was born in Manitoba, Canada but as a young child, she moved with her family to BC where she attended school. After graduating from UBC, she taught school for several years then retired to have a family of four children. It was then that she began writing. Her first book was best-selling picturebook, See you Later, Alligator. It was followed by another picturebook, then several novels. When Norma's youngest child entered school, she went back to teaching, becoming a teacer/librarian, a position which she held for many years in Vancouver until she retired (again) in order to write full time. Her 18th book was released in Sept. 2011. Run Marco Run is a riviting adventure about a boy who sees his father being kidnapped in Colombia and he stowaways on a freighter to Vancouver where he hopes to get help.