It?s 1979, and Simon?s life is unraveling before his very eyes. He doesn?t get along with his father, his girlfriend has just dumped him, he?s in trouble with the school authorities, and he?s been arrested for drinking underage and smoking pot?not to mention selling the stuff. And to top it off, he?s adopted, and his parents act like it?s something shameful. He wrestles open his parents? lockbox, finds the names and last known location of his birth parents, and decides to leave Mansfield, Iowa, and head to Texas in search of his origins. His encounters with an Elvis impersonator (who may just be the missing man himself) along with a young woman on the lam and two hapless drifters add up to a picaresque road-trip tale that is not only very funny but honest in the telling.

 

 

This book has been graded for interest at 12 years.

There are 160 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2003 by Cricket Books, a division of Carus Publishing Co .

Brian Yansky lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, the writer Frances Hill. He is the author of the award winning Young Adult novel My Road Trip to the Pretty Girl Capital of the World . He has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College and teaches writing at Austin Community College.