For the Love of Pete (An Avon Camelot Book) [Paperback]

Jan Marino (Author)

Book Description

Series: An Avon Camelot Book

When her doting grandmother is moved into a nursing home, Phoebe, accompanied by three former servants, begins a search for the father who abandoned her at birth and comes to realize the value of loved ones. Reprint. K. AB. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although set in 1977, this story of an adolescent's voyage to meet her father has the sweetly innocent quality of a 1930s movie. Narrator Phoebe, almost 12, leads a Shirley Temple-like existence: she's doted on by former opera star Gram; Bishopp the butler; Bertie the maid and Bertie's younger brother, Billy, the chauffeur, who, in the only nod to contemporaneity, lost an arm in Vietnam. When Gram's always unstable mental condition is deemed hopeless, Phoebe unwillingly leaves her home in rural Georgia and sets off with the other three in Gram's old Deusenberg. Bertie and Billy are to be let off in Virginia, but Phoebe's destination is Maine and the home of the father she's never met. The quartet travels old roads, from one timeless backwater town to another; only when Phoebe, in saying good-bye to Bertie and Billy, relinquishes the past and accepts present circumstances does Bishopp switch to the interstate and speed her to her future. Marino ( The Day That Elvis Came to Town ) has fashioned an elegant and tender homage to classic road pictures, underscored with pointed references to It Happened One Night and Paper Moon . As in those movies, it's not the destination that counts here, but the lessons learned along the way. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-- In her latest novel, Marino again reveals that people can share trust, love, and compassion despite racial and social differences and personal hardships. With her guardian grandmother, Olivia, confined to a nursing home, 11-year-old Phoebe is shepherded by the ailing woman's three devoted servants on a journey to find the father she has never met. Bishopp, the British butler; Bertie, the black cook who once sang opera with Olivia; and Billy, the Vietnam-vet chauffeur, escort Phoebe on a backroads odyssey from Lubelle County, Georgia, to Maine. The unwavering affection and sympathy of her traveling companions reduces Phoebe's anger and anxiety over the upheaval in her sheltered life. With each roadside adventure, she gains greater insight into people, herself, and her father. Some readers may wonder about the girl's complete naivete about sex and her lack of involvement with peers and school. And yet, despite her innocence and isolation, her emotional turmoil over leaving home and meeting her father rings true. Phoebe's quaint, well-paced narrative is a lesson in human understanding. Olivia, Phoebe, and the others are dynamic, multifaceted characters whose differences in age, worldliness, and ethnic backgrounds add depth to this unusual and moving story. --Gerry Larson, Chewning Junior High School, Durham, NC
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Camelot (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038072281X
• ISBN-13: 978-0380722815
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,745,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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