A Rambler Steals Home

by Carter Higgins

Eleven-year-old Derby Christmas Clark is a rambler of the road. She travels year-round in an RV with her father and younger brother, selling Christmas trees during the cold months and burgers and fries during baseball season. Derby always did prefer grease splatters to hauling trees, so she’s excited that summer will take her back to small town Ridge Creek, the Rockskippers, her best friend, and her surrogate mom, June. But this summer, a tragedy has changed Ridge Creek—and as Derby tries to help those she loves, long-held secrets are revealed. This warm-hearted southern debut is perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo and Sheila Turnage.

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Sports, Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 28, 2017

About the author

Carter Higgins is the author of the middle grade novel A Rambler Steals Home (HMH) and three picture books from Chronicle Books: This Is Not a Valentine (illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins), Everything You Need for a Treehouse (illustrated by Emily Hughes), and Bikes for Sale (illustrated by Zachariah Ohora).

Her first picture book as both author and illustrator, Circle Under Berry, releases in 2021 from Chronicle Books. Also releasing in 2021 is Audrey L and Audrey W: Best Friends-ish, a chapter book illustrated by Jennifer K. Mann. Big and Small and In Between, a picture book illustrated by Daniel Miyares, releases in 2022.

She is an Emmy-winning visual effects and motion graphics artist and spent a decade as an elementary school librarian. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @carterhiggins. She lives in Nevada.

Reviews

[Elly Swartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Rambler Steals Home by Carter Higgins tells the story of how ramblers, Derby, Garland, Triple and a turtle named Peter, discover that home has roots where your heart is, surrounded cucumber sandwiches, apple pies, pink doors, and those who love you most. Dad Garland is an eccentric character, filled with year-round Christmas spirit and a belief in luck and family. While daughter Derby is initially skeptical of the virtues of luck in their lives, we see a shift in her beliefs as the story unfolds. At one point, she consoles her little brother Triple, “We miss someone, but Garland is still here and aren’t we lucky to have him?” Derby, like her dad, ultimately realizes that amidst hardship and broken pieces, there is luck and love. This is a story that will tug at your heart. Derby’s sass, strength of character, and spirit will make your heart hurt when her sadness drips off the page and root for her when she finds her way. Her voice is spot-on perfect. One of my favorite lines: “I folded my Christmas Nutmeg smile into two straight lines of wait and hope and see.” I highly recommend this book. You will love it!

I received an arc for an honest review of this story.

[Scott Fillner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Rambler Steals Home is one of those stories that is a lot like the comfort food mentioned in the novel...it's something that you can rely on. It's something that grows on you. And it's something that can bring comfort and closeness to others. The characters in this novel go through wonderful transitions and you can just feel and see them grow as you become more and more attached to them over the duration of the story. I cannot wait for this book to be available for others to read it!

[Katy O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a sweet story! The language in this middle grade story just leaps off the page, and I just couldn't stop from reading the entire book with a twang in my mental voice. It's a story of family and home and traditions, all of which are depicted beautifully. Highly recommended for students in grades 3-6, especially those who love a good down home story about America's pastime. If you have a classroom of kids as a captive audience, this would be an amazing read aloud ~ and PLEASE read it with a twang - it will make me happy.

[Jenn Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

To say that I'm a sucker for baseball stories would be a huge understatement. I pretty much live for stories that capture the smell of freshly cut grass and the smack of a ball off a bat. So it should not surprise you that I completely fell for the world Carter Higgins creates in her middle grade debut. I felt like I was rambling right into Ridge Creek along with Derby and the rest of her on-the-road family. Derby's yearning for a more permanent is as poignant as the inspired friendships she forges with folks in Ridge Creek, from June to Marcus to . . well, even those Ploggers. Derby's spirit shines in this book and I know many a middle-grade reader who will connect with this heartwarming story.

[Mary Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

"People are a lot nicer when you're nice to them first." One of my favorite quotes from this wonderful middle grade debut! Fans of Kate DiCamillo and Kate Beasley will love the beautiful characters & story in A Rambler Steals Home.

Derby, her brother Triple and their father Garland spend their seasons living and working on the road in their rambler. They sell Christmas trees in Wisconsin, and spend their summers flipping burgers outside of the Rock Skipper minor league baseball stadium in Ridge Creek Virginia.

I fell in love with the amazing prose in this book from the first chapter! Carter Higgens sure can turn a phrase. I also loved Derby and the way she navigated various family and friendship challenges. Highly recommend! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Beth P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derby, Wrangler and Triple are ramblers, traveling to different states as the seasons change, but "home" is summer at the ballpark. I could hear the sweet potato fries sizzle, smell the sweat and dirt that clung to Triple and feel the locals wrap Derby and her family in blankets of love. Beautifully crafted lines join hands to create a story about what it means to be a family.

[Wendy MacKnight · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem of a book. Derby, her father Garland, and her younger brother Triple (along with the best turtle EVER, Pete!) are ramblers, moving from place to place with the seasons. But Ridge Creek, where the family spends its summers, is Derby's favorite resting spot, and not just because it's home to the Ridge Creek Rockskippers, her favorite baseball team. It's also home to her bestie Marcus, and to her beloved June and Franklin, the rocks behind the Rockskippers.

But things are changing this summer. Franklin's gone and Marcus has new responsibilities. June is grieving and lonely. Triple is growing up, but still needs a Mama he can never see again.

This is a story of friendship, finding your heart's family, and feeling gratitude for the little things. Cater Higgin's characters jump off the page with the same crackle and sizzle as Garland's grill. This is a book to fill a spot in your heart you didn't know was missing and it will be loved by all who read it!

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about a girl who rambles the country on a certain route each year with her father and younger brother. Summers bring them to a small town in Virginia where Derby's dad operates a grill, and sells food to the locals at the summer-main-attraction baseball games. This small town is the home of her heart.

Derby's voice is all honey-warmth, and poetry, and simple kindness, and those are all things that are so sorely needed in this world. I consider this story as part of the 'slow' movement. This book slows down the speeding stress of the world, so we can savor having an oatmeal raisin cookie and a glass of lemonade on the porch with a kind older friend. The poetic lilting twang of Derby's language is beautiful; she has turns of phrase that are unexpected as poetry, and very lovely. It's a warm hug of a book that will leave you smiling.

[Ruth Lehrer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet middle grade read populated with great names starting with the gutsy main character -- a girl by the name of Derby Christmas Clark. Evocative ballgames and terrific food - from apple pies to cherry coals, onion rings to sweet potato fries, tomato sandwiches and lemonade. A Rambler Steals Home is a lovely debut full of "food, family and fun" but also the heartache of change.
I received a free ARC of this 2017 debut in exchange for an honest review.

[Amanda Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Your home has wheels, but your heart has roots right here." Derby, Triple & Garland will take root in your heart! Filled with family, fun & fried food - A Rambler Steals Home is sure to win over lots of middle grade readers! Carter Higgins has such a great voice & sense of character - from their unique names to their personalities that leap from the page! On my Mock Newbery List for 2018.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this sweet book in about one gulp. I loved Derby, Betsy, and those broken Clarks with their big old hearts. A gentle story about baseball and loss and home and finding one's roots. (And turtle races, of course.) For anyone cheering for the Home Team, this one's for you. Ages 10+

[Paul Orsino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derby and the Ramblers are sure to steal your heart. Beautifully written.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derby Christmas Clark may have stolen home but she's also stolen my heart! What a story - I loved every bit of it: minor league baseball, finding your people, Garland's Grill (and burgers with mustard & sweet potato fries), turtle races, and Christmas Nutmeg lipstick.

Derby's voice is unforgettable and the theme itself, that home is who you're with and the people you love, resonates so strongly. I love Derby, her family, her friends, the Rambler and Ridge Creek, VA and their beloved Rockskippers.

A perfect book for readers ages 8 - 12. Would pair wonderfully with BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE and THE DISTANCE TO HOME.

[Alexandra Ott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A RAMBLER STEALS HOME is such a charming, sweet middle grade book, and I love it so much. I devoured it in one sitting, and by the end I felt so attached to Ridge Creek and its wonderful cast of characters. Derby's voice is pitch perfect, and I am in awe of the writing. As soon as I finished this book I immediately wanted to read it all over again. I cannot wait until this is published so I can share it with everyone. Highly recommend!

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is told in language that is lyrical, evocative, and as delicious as sweet potato fries!

[Emily Montjoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Rambler Steals Home then stole my heart! Readers will fall in love with this story of family & friends and a place you call home. Highly recommend!

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Being a rambler on the road means three things ... Food, family and fun."

Derby, little brother Triple, and father Garland are ramblers. They travel from season to season. In the winter, they haul and sell Christmas trees in Wisconsin. But from June to September, they set up Garland's Grill outside of James Edward Allen Gibbs Stadium, home of the Ridge Creek Rockskippers. This is the season that Derby loves. This is where best friend, Marcus, is. And where June calls her Sugar Sue. Of course, it isn't perfect. There are the Ploggers, Betsy and Lollie, who tend to be a pain in the butt. But it's the place where Derby feels the most at home.

But something has changed this summer. On their first day, Marcus doesn't show up to watch batting practice (a first day tradition). And June doesn't invite Derby to her porch, but instead asks her to come to her ticket booth. When Derby finds out that June's husband has passed away, it starts to explain some of the unusual behaviors she's been seeing. "It only takes one person disappearing for a whole family to crumble." Derby knows about loss ever since her mother disappeared. "Sometimes big hearts make bad decisions." And she wants to help June be happy again.

A charming read about how families are created and how homes are found.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Rambler Steals Home is a wonderful story about Derby, Garland and Triple Clark, a family of ramblers, who roll into Ridge Creek, Virginia, each summer at the start of the Minor League baseball season, reconnecting with friends and feeding the locals from their mobile food truck. This year, they find out a tragedy has occurred while they were gone for the winter and they realize family is defined by more than blood. It's a story that made me hungry for summer, making memories, minor league baseball, and vacationing in an RV! A heartfelt story I look forward to sharing with students!

[Casey Lyall · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic read! Derby Christmas Clark travels the county with her dad and younger brother, selling Christmas trees in the winter and flipping burgers in the summer. They spend every summer in the small town of Ridge Creek Virginia, the closest thing Derby knows to a home. This summer brings a swath of changes into Derby's life. This story was brimming with fantastic characters and wonderful relationships. It was heart-warming and sweet and I can't wait to read it again.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Higgins has created a beautiful story filled with characters who will keep you turning the pages just so you can go along with them.

Derby is a strong female character who is full of heart, and her life is a bit different from other girls her age. I loved this story and look forward to more from this author.

I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Darcy Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summer may just be ending, but this book made me long for it to start all over again. A sweet, fun read from Carter Higgins that made me feel like I was right back under the bleachers with my brother, eating boxed popcorn and scavenging for dropped quarters! Trust me, you'll want to read this one!

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this book has earned Carter Higgins a place alongside Ali Benjamin, Tracy Holczer, and Kat Yeh as one of my favorite middle grade voices. She's created such a vibrant character in Derby -- as vibrant as Derby's Christmas Nutmeg lipstick.

[Hoover Public Library Kids and Teens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derby lives a life on the move, but every summer brings them back to the same minor league baseball stadium -- to sell hot dogs and root for the home team. Derby is looking forward to all the summer traditions. But this summer has something ELSE in mind.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A charming summer read about friendship and family, and how even a rambler has a place to call home! Derby Christmas Clark is as lovable as she is plucky, and kids will root for her and her friends. Perfect for fans of THE DISTANCE TO HOME.

[Corabel Shofner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just look at that cover! How could you resist? Carter Higgins is a wonderful writer.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a sweet, sweet story!

[Suzanne Maley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has so much heart even though there some sad parts. You will fall in love with many of the characters but especially Derby and her irresistible charm.

[Samuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

All the way through A Rambler Steals Home, I found myself asking questions that probably weren't entirely relevant to the story, but that nonetheless kept me from fully engaging with the plot and characters.

Rambler is narrated by Derby Christmas Clark, who lives out of the titular vehicle alongside her brother, Triple, and her father, Garland. Each summer, they return to the town of Ridge Creek, Virginia, and operate a food stand outside of the stadium of the minor-league Ridge Creek Rockskippers. This year, however, some of their Ridge Creek friends are gone, some have had life-changing experiences, and some have secrets that will soon rise to the surface.

I'm a huge baseball fan, and I enjoy attending minor league games. However, I found myself coming back again and again to the question of what kind of team the Rockskippers are. We're told at one point that "players came and went as they got good enough for the big leagues," which makes it sound like this is a minor league affiliate of a team in the majors, although no specific parent team is ever listed. The Rockskippers would have to be a low-level team, however, given that Ridge Creek seems to be a small town indeed. (For what it's worth, the town where I live has 30,000 people in it and still only has a low-A team, one step above the bottom of the organized minor leagues.) But the starting right fielder, Goose Plogger, seems to have played for the team for at least 14 or 15 years; given that he has an 11-year-old daughter born after his marriage to a town local, he's almost certainly in his early to mid-thirties anyway. Even in an independent league, the fringe-iest level of professional ball, it defies belief that a player that age would a) still be on the same team, and b) never have changed teams or advanced a level and still be starting. Maybe, maybe, this would have been possible back in the old pre-1950s Pacific Coast League, but it's simply not a thing that happens now.

Similarly, this appears to be a team that only has one groundskeeper -- a twelve-year-old boy -- and one person selling tickets. Even down at the level of my local single-A team, there are multiple ticket windows, a whole grounds crew, and a team of PR people, sales reps, and management types. I'm just not buying any of the setting here; it's like a Truman Show-level recreation of the idea of a small-town baseball team, rather than anything based in reality.

I might have spent less time thinking about this if I had had anything else to concentrate on. But the plot is an accumulation of off-the-shelf parts from The Higher Power of Lucky, and Missing May, and any number of other books about missing mothers, sorrowing fathers and daughters, and small-town secrets about loss and acceptance. I couldn't find anything here that I hadn't read elsewhere, and so the weirdness of the setting ended up occupying most of my attention.


A longer version of this review appears at For Those About to Mock (abouttomock.blogspot.com)

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to the author, publisher and KidLit Exchange for a free review copy of A Rambler Steals Home in exchange for my honest review.

A Rambler Steal's Home is a heartwarming story about a girl named Derby. She is a 'rambler' along with her brother and father. They drive around in an RV selling Christmas trees in the winter and burgers and fries in the summer during baseball season. Derby prefers the summer season: she loves baseball and the friends she has in the small town of Ridge Creek.

This book was so reminiscent of a time long ago where kids actually played outside and got dirty in the summer. Derby's brother plays on a homemade shoebox 'banjo' and everyone is happy to watch baseball again. While I was reading this, I kept thinking about how important it is for kids to read about this kind of life/time. A Rambler Steals Home can keep that era alive for both adults and kids. The characters are great, the setting is great and is just an overall enjoyable middle-grade read. 5 out of 5 stars!

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this middle grade debut. Derby Christmas Clark, her brother Triple, and her father Garland are ramblers in the truest sense. They skip from the mountains of Wisconsin where they pull Christmas trees out of the forest and sell them along the highway, to spring carnivals on their way south, to their summer home in Ridge Creek, Virginia. They travel and live in what they call "the Rambler". Hitched to the Rambler is a concession stand on wheels where they sell apple cider and donuts in the fall, hot chocolate in the winter, carnival cotton candy in the spring, and burgers and sweet potato fries next to a minor-league baseball stadium in Ridge Creek. And it is the summer where we meet Derby and watch her discover her Virginia home grieving.

Derby has an unforgettable voice that fits with her rambling ways along with her deep desire to set down roots. A sweet story that explores what it means to call a place - and a community - home.