The Road to Home [Paperback]

Mary Jane Auch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2002 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Thirteen-year-old Remembrance “Mem” Nye has had much more than her share of responsibility since her mother died. It’s too hard caring for her younger brother and baby sister, and Mem looks forward to returning to the family fold at her grandmother’s house. But their journey back home is delayed when they reach Rome, New York, and Mem’s father joins the crew that is digging the Erie Canal. Mem soon realizes her father isn’t up to providing for them and won’t take them to their grandmother’s. Mem feels her only choice is to pick up and walk with the children all the way to Connecticut. She has faced many challenges. This journey will be the greatest challenge of all.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Auch completes the story of Remembrance Nye, which she began in Journey to Nowhere (1997). In Frozen Summer (1998, both Holt), Mem's mother died, leaving her with the care of young Joshua and Lily. Now 13, Mem sets out on the road back to Connecticut with her father, brother, and baby sister. Their father proves to be the sort of man who cannot assume responsibility for anyone but himself and, when the family reaches Rome, NY, the lure of fast money and the excitement of working on the Erie Canal project take precedence over the welfare of his children. Mem is left in charge, living at a small tavern in town while Papa moves out to the construction site. Prickly, proper, and often hard to like, the teen decides to return to her mother's family with her siblings, without their father's help. She foolishly attempts the trip on foot with no food or provisions, and after much hardship, turns back. While the denouement is rather contrived, Mem is a clearly defined character, yearning for education and adult guidance. Filled with action, adventure, and lots of solid historical detail, the book stands well on its own. A useful addition to collections where historical fiction is popular and where westward expansion is part of the curriculum.
Sharon Grover, Arlington County Department of Libraries, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This sequel to the well-received Journey to Nowhere (1997) and Frozen Summer (1998) finds 13-year-old Mem Nye, her younger brother, toddler sister, and father leaving their homestead cabin to go back to Connecticut. Mama is dead, their farm a failure, and Mem wants nothing more than to get back to her grandmother and the rest of her mother's family. When they reach Rome, New York, her father decides to become a digger on the Erie Canal, and the children are put up in a boarding house run by Maude Tucker, who starts out by being Mem's nemesis, but becomes the children's savior. Auch does an excellent job of portraying the whole range of Mem's feelings: her longing for a home, her anger at her diffident, whisky-drinking father, her determination to get her siblings back to Connecticut. The emotional story is juxtaposed with all sorts of adventures and events, many unexpected, that keep the action fresh and moving at all times. Fans of the previous books will be eager to learn what happens to Mem, but this well-researched story, with plenty of history about the work on the Erie Canal, also stands alone. Ilene Cooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (January 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440418054
• ISBN-13: 978-0440418054
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,222,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring story about a girl's love for her siblings., July 16, 2000

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Road to Home (Hardcover)

Since her mother's descent into madness and eventual death,thirteen-year-old Mem Nye has been the one to care for her two younger siblings, seven-year-old Joshua and one-year-old Lily. When her father finally admits defeat and sells their New York frontier homestead, with the intention of returning to their old home in Connecticut, Mem believes things will finally get easier. But they only get worse. Her father, a reckless dreamer, halts their journey when it has barely started, so that he can take a job working on the Erie Canal. All week long he leaves Mem and her siblings at a tavern; on his one day home, he spends the time drunk. Finally, Mem has had enough. Determined that Joshua and Lily have a better home, she decides to take them back to the relatives in Connecticut on her own. But their journey through the wilderness will be filled with hardship and peril, and will test the limits of Mem's courage, endurance, and love. This was excellant as a historical novel, but also as a tale of a girl who is determined to make a better life for her family. I highly reccomend it. It is especially good if you read the other two books about Mem, Journey to Nowhere and Frozen Summer, but it stands on its own as well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A historical drama that reels you into the depths of love, October 17, 2002

By 

Ashley O Hutton (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Road to Home (Paperback)

During the 19th century, many American families were packing up their belongings and headed westward in search of land, prosperity and a fresh start. In, "The Road to Home," we meet Jeremiah, a father taking his children, Remembrance, Joshua and Lily back to their home in Hartford, Connecticut. The sudden loss of their mother after the birth of Lily has forced the eldest child, Remembrance to take the mother's role for the younger siblings. On the journey back to Hartford, the construction of the Erie Canal sidetracks Jeremiah. The canal gave hope to people wanting to move towards the west. The family retreats in Rome, New York in a tavern headed by an aggressive woman named Maude Tucker. Jeremiah decides to earn extra money by joining the workers of the Erie Canal. Mem is infuriated with her father's decision to stop because she is anxious to relinquish her duties to her grandmother, aunt and cousins back home. Jeremiah promises his children he will only work for one full week and then they can continue on down the road, but the weeks rapidly pass and they remain trapped at the tavern. Mem realizes that her father has succumbed to the allure of money and cheap whiskey. He has betrayed his promise. She quickly packs up her brother and sister to embark on a treacherous journey home. On the way home, they encounter a myriad of interesting strangers. This book is truly a twisting adventure that deals with the challenges of growing up too quickly as an adolescent. "The Road to Home" would be an excellent tool for fifth and sixth grade classrooms. A teacher could easily incorporate language arts, history, music, art and math with this story.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Originally, I loved the series, April 24, 2010

By 

H. C. Lawrence (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Road to Home (Paperback)

I waited expectantly for this book to come out when I was a girl, having read the first and second book several times. My, was I disappointed to finally read the last book of the trilogy about Mem! I felt it didn't keep at all with the tradition of the previous two, though Frozen Summer started going downhill fast. All in all, Journey to Nowhere was the best. All three are replete with beautiful historical details. Journey to Nowhere was one of the books that started my life-long love of history - and the early 19th century in particular - because it had an engaging storyline in addition to the historical accuracy. So I was saddened to find that The Road to Home did not live up to my expectations as far as having an enjoyable story.

Yes, it may be, as another reviewer put it, "an inspiring story about a girl's love for her siblings," but I did not like Mem's attitude towards her father at all, and I don't recollect her as ever being very respectful to anyone throughout this book.

There also was an uncomfortable episode that is highly inappropriate for girls of the age range of the targeted audience (9-12), which completely turned any regard I had for this book into loathing. As a pre-teen, I tried to read books that I would be unashamed of my mother reading, too, or reading to me. This book, unfortunately, did not fit into that category.