Julia and the Art of Practical Travel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
When her grandmother dies and the once-majestic family estate is sold, eleven-year-old Julia Lancaster and her aunt Constance must take to the road to find Julia’s long-lost mother. They bring with them only the most practical travel things—silver candlestick holders, a few Oriental carpets, some steamer trunks, and Julia’s beloved Brownie camera, which she will use to document their journey across 1960s America.
On the road, Julia and her aunt meet a cast of peculiar characters, including guitar-strumming hippies in Greenwich Village, a legendary voodoo queen in New Orleans, the honorable proprietor of the World’s End Cattle Ranch in Texas, and the colorful sheriff of Gold Point, Nevada (population: 1), who also happens to be the town’s mayor, fire chief, and reverend. But will they find Julia’s mother and a place to call home?
Poignant, engaging, and funny, Lesley M. M. Blume’s new novel is a meditation on the thin line between being an insider and being an outsider, and the deep-rooted need we all have to find a place where we can feel at home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eleven-year-old Julia Lancaster's story begins in 1968 on "the day that my life at Windy Ridge ended and my life everyplace else began." After Julia's wealthy grandmother dies, and the family estate in the Hudson Valley is sold, Julia and her Aunt Constance hit the road, determined to track down Julia's mother, who disappeared three years before. In an old station wagon full of family heirlooms like a silver tea set and oriental carpets "practical travel things," according to Aunt Constance they travel from New York to California. Along the way, privileged, sheltered Julia becomes closer to her reserved aunt and forms many opinions of her own, not always generous ones ("I decided that old-guard New Orleans grande dame meant an old lady who was quite fat and wore lots of face powder and big hats and flowered dresses"). But overall, Blume (Tennyson) offers a touching and entertaining series of adventures, set amid changing landscapes and 1960s culture. Photos Julia takes with her Brownie camera appear throughout. Ages 8 12.
