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On the Road to Find Out
By Kate Pavao,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Inspiring tale of teen who gains perspective by running.
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What's the Story?
What's a self-absorbed, overachiever to do when she's rejected from Yale? Alice, the protagonist in ON THE ROAD TO FIND OUT, mopes around and moans to her one friend and her family, spends time with her beloved pet rat, and eventually makes a rather impulsive New Year's resolution to start running. It isn't easy for Alice, but she slowly gets in shape. As she becomes a runner, she meets a community of people who not only help with her technique but also help her understand that there are many ways to define success -- and that failure can be an important step in getting you where you need to go.
Is It Any Good?
Alice isn't always an easy character to like. She doesn't ask her best friend Jenni much about her own life, and she even forgets her mom's big birthday party. But readers will see throughout that there's something special about her; her love of learning and for her pet rat set her apart from the average teen girl.
Readers will learn a lot about running, rats, and vocabulary words. But it's the big messages about being willing to make mistakes and fail that readers will find inspiring and -- especially for teens with their own college-application anxieties -- reassuring.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about New Year's resolutions. Why does Alice decide to start running? Do you ever make resolutions of your own?
On the Road to Find Out involves running, but it's not really a book about sports. What makes this a coming-of-age story? What are some of your favorite coming-of-age books or movies?
Is there too much pressure on college applicants to be perfect? If you were a college admissions officer, how would you decide which student to let in?
Book Details
- Author: Rachel Toor
- Genre: Coming of Age
- Topics: Great Girl Role Models , High School
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication date: June 10, 2014
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 12 - 18
- Number of pages: 320
- Available on: Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 12, 2017
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