Big Rig

by Louise Hawes

Overview

Hitch a ride with 11-year-old Hazmat and her Dad in their 18-wheeler, Leonardo, for a feel-good road trip across America that keeps on trucking!

Life on the road with Daddy is as good as gets for Hazmat. Together, they've been taking jobs and crisscrossing the US for years. Now Daddy's talking about putting down roots—somewhere Hazmat can go to a real school and make friends. Somewhere Daddy doesn't have to mail-order textbooks that talk about "nature's promise to all women."

And while everything just keeps changing, sometimes in ways she can't control, Hazmat isn't ready to give up the freedom of long-distance hauling. Sure the road is filled with surprises, from plane crashes and robo trucks to runaway hitchhikers and abandoned babies, but that all makes for great stories! So Hazmat hatches a plan to make sure Daddy's dream never becomes a reality. Because there's only one place Hazmat belongs: in the navigator's seat, right next to Daddy, with the whole country flying by like a crazy quilt and each day different from the last.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682635612
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	08/01/2023
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	307,803
Product dimensions:	6.01(w) x 8.01(h) x 0.73(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Louise Hawes is an American academic and author of more than a dozen novels and several short story collections. She has served as Writer in Residence at the University of New Mexico and The Women's University of Mississippi, and as a John Grisham Visiting Writer at the University of Mississippi. Louise helped found the MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College, and currently teaches there. Visit her at www.louisehawes.com

Libraries and collection developers seeking road trip stories, set through the perspective of commercial trucking, that paint a non-didactic tapestry of contemporary America.

Single parent homes raising intelligent, quirky, and independent children who are navigating the transition from kid to pre-teen and may be struggling to form questions about the absence of a second parental figure.

Middle grade readers who fantasize about life on the road and wonder what it'd look and feel like if their own home rituals and school routines were replaced with something nontraditional. "Where would I sleep? What's the bathroom situation? Can I bring Fido with me?" All great questions, answered within!

Readers looking to go on an emotional, heart-tugging, laugh-out-loud journey as Hazmat wrestles with ideas of womanhood, yearns for a relationship with an absent parent, and fights to retain a lifestyle where tomorrow doesn't look like yesterday or the day before.

Editorial Reviews

10/31/2022

Eleven-year-old Hazel Sampson—trucker handle Hazmat—narrates this action-packed novel about her long-haul adventures with her father, an English literature professor turned trucker. Following Hazel’s mother’s death a week after her birth, Hazel went to live with family friends Mazen and Serena until her dad “figured out how to stop drinking and start loving again.” Now, the two criss-cross the country in big rig Leonardo, a long-nose Peterbilt, listening to audiobooks, homeschooling from the road, and chatting with the ashes of Hazel’s mother. Though Hazel’s dad fears professional obsolescence in the face of driverless robo-trucks, Hazel aspires to the vocation—if she can find a way to extend the way of life she loves so dearly. As part of this effort, Hazel comes up with an idea to glamorize trucking through film. Through Hazel’s winning, practical voice, Hawes (The Language of Stars) sketches the close relationship between navigator daughter and driver father as well as the memorable cast they find on the road, including an abandoned baby, a teenage runaway who dreams of stardom, and a kitten who’s the sole survivor of a plane crash. The heroine charms completely, as does this portrait of life on the road. Hazel and her father present as white; Mazen and Serena are Black. Ages 8–12. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Woven with hilarity, tenderness, and the chaos of life on the road, Big Rig is a charming novel about growing up."—Foreword Reviews

"[An]  action-packed novel. . . . The heroine charms completely, as does this portrait of life on the road."—Publishers Weekly

"There are hilarious moments, some mysticism, and heart-stopping adventures. . . . Hazel is innocent, wise, trusting, loving, capable, creative—and a total delight; readers will root for her all the way. . . . An unusual modern picaresque romp with a lovely message."—Kirkus Reviews

"Hazel’s loving relationship with her father forms the core of this unusual roadtrip adventure . . . . Hawes creates a story that is wholesome without being hokey, and readers looking for a feel-good adventure should come along for the ride."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Hawes' breezy tale will capture readers' attention, piquing their interest through highway high jinks and keeping them wondering about where Hazmat's adventures will take them next. An original tweak on the road trip story." —Booklist

From the Publisher

09/01/2022

Gr 4–6—Hazel's mother died when she was a newborn, so it's been just her and Dad trucking on the road together. Hazel is homeschooled by her truck driver father (who also has a PhD in English Literature), and even though he keeps talking about getting a home and Hazel going to school one day, she wants to put off that future for as long as possible. To Hazel, the road is home, and she wants other people to understand that, too. As the plot progresses, Hazel and her father find themselves in one unbelievable situation after another—encountering a teenage runaway, rescuing a van of school children, and saving a cat from an airplane crash to name a few—and Hazel uses them all for her trucker script she wants to send to Hollywood executives. While Hawes has a unique premise with lots of potential, it can feel like readers are on a very long trucking trip with a lot of curves and one too many rest stops. Many of the things that happen to Hazel and her father could happen individually, but it seems highly improbable that so many things would happen to them in such a short span of time. And while readers might be able to understand that all of these events bring Hazel and her father closer together while teaching important life lessons, it becomes too much to suspend disbelief. VERDICT A fair purchase for libraries seeking books about father-daughter relationships or trucker life.—Kerri L. Williams

School Library Journal

2022-05-25
Eleven-year-old Hazel loves life on the road with her dad.

Her mom died when she was an infant, and for the first four years of her life she lived with Dad’s beloved best friends, Mazen and Serena, while her father grieved and got his drinking under control. But now Hazel and Dad drive all over the country, hauling all kinds of cargo, overnighting at truck stops, and sleeping in the cab of their truck, Leonardo, which Dad fitted with comfortable bunks and a starry ceiling. Dad home-schools Hazel on a wide variety of fascinating subjects, and a marble box holding Mom’s ashes is always with them. Hazel worries that industry automation and Dad’s talk of quitting the road will prevent her from achieving her dream of someday being a trucker, but she’s working on a clever, secret plan. Hazel narrates her story at a pace that varies with their activities. There are hilarious moments, some mysticism, and heart-stopping adventures: Encounters with an abandoned baby, a kitten rescued from a plane crash, a teen runaway, and a school van caught in a flash flood highlight their compassion and bravery. Father and daughter learn to understand each other, and when Hazel’s ingenious plan succeeds, a momentous decision is reached. Hazel is innocent, wise, trusting, loving, capable, creative—and a total delight; readers will root for her all the way. Hazel and Dad are White; Mazen and Serena are Black.

An unusual modern picaresque romp with a lovely message. (Fiction. 9-13)

Kirkus Reviews