Are We There Yet?
The First Road Trip Across the USA
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Hitch a ride on the first road trip across the United States of America in this “droll, easygoing” (Booklist, starred review) nonfiction picture book from Ezra Jack Keats Honor winner Stacy McAnulty and New York Times bestselling illustrator Elizabeth Baddeley!
It’s 1903 when Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson bets fifty dollars that he can drive a horseless carriage (a car) across the USA, from California to New York, in less than three months. Considering Dr. Jackson doesn’t know how to drive, there are no highways yet, and everyone else who’s tried the trip has failed, the odds are stacked against him. Still, he hires a bike racer to act as mechanic, and the two set off in Dr. Jackson’s car, the Vermont, with their team mascot, Bud the bulldog.
Their trip is far from easy street. The duo must pull the car across streams, drive through deep mud and over rocky terrain, and wait for a stagecoach to bring spare parts. And with no windshield, doors, or a roof, every bump in the road means boingy boingy boingy—until things bounce right out of the car!
Then two more teams start out from California, and the race is on! Can a doctor, a bike racer, and a bulldog make it across the finish line first?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Driving across the U.S. may be doable now, but in 1903, horseless carriages traveled slowly and lacked roofs, seat belts, and windshields. And neither cross-country maps nor reliable infrastructure yet existed ("Cities and towns had streets, but highways? Nope!"). So when Horatio Nelson Jackson (1872–1955) accepts a wager of $50 to drive to Vermont from San Francisco in less than three months, the journey takes on epic dimensions. McAnulty (the Our Universe series) follows with verve the progress of Jackson, bicycle racer and mechanic Sewall Crocker (1883–1913), and dog Bud as they journey east in a Winton touring car they call "Vermont." Jackson doesn't initially know how to drive, the vehicle bounces so roughly that supplies are lost overboard, and better-prepared competitors try to steal their thunder. But Jackson, who has "money and... a stubborn, nothing-will-stop-me spirit," remains undaunted. Comical, digitally drafted artwork by Baddeley (Splash!) supplies period details, extensive landscapes, and plenty of exaggerated action—pelting rain, flying objects, clouds of dust, and cheering fans. Even inventions have awkward early years, the creators reveal in this can-do telling. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary. Illustrator's agent: Alexandra Penfold, Upstart Crow Literary.
