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The Way to Schenectady
Twelve-year-old Jane Peeler is about to embark on a summer the family car trip. Along with her two younger brothers, Bill and Bernie, Jane will endure traffic jams, singalongs, and fights over who gets the window on a two-day car trip to New England. With help from her Walkman, it may not be too bad, even if her chain-smoking, grumpy grandmother is coming along. But during a stop at a gas station, the kids meet Marty – a kind, penniless old man with a problem. How will he get to his brother’s funeral in Schenectady the next day? Jane would like to help him out – but how? Bringing a friend along on holiday is one thing, but a total stranger?
Readers will delight in the hilarious detours the Peelers must make to get their newest passenger, and themselves, to their destination on time.
Readers will delight in the hilarious detours the Peelers must make to get their newest passenger, and themselves, to their destination on time.
168 pages, Paperback
First published October 3, 1998
13 people want to read
About the author
Richard Scrimger
35 books29 followersI was born with very little hair and very little feet and hands. They all grew together and I still have them, together with all my organs except tonsils. I do not have four children -- they have me and we all know it. I write and teach and talk about writing and other things. Actually, I talk a lot. I’m right handed, my car has a dent in the passenger side door, and my blood type is A-. The motto of South Carolina is Dum spiro spero.— success comes by breathing. I like black licorice and rice pudding and ratatouille and coffee. Lots of coffee. My hair usually needs cutting. How much more do you need to know about anybody?
I have been writing since 1996. No, that's not true. I wrote for years before that, but no one cared. Since 1996 I've published fifteen books for adults and children. You can read more about them somewhere else on this site. A few of the books did very well. Some came close. A couple didn't do well at all. My most recent offering is Ink Me, a tragicomedy about a tattoo gone wrong, told in supercool phonetic speak by our learning-disabled hero. Zomboy – an undead story – is due out next year. (My editor and I are arguing about certain scenes right now.) And I am writing a semi-graphic novel about kids who fall into a comic book.
Do you want more details? Really? Okay, then.
In 1996 I published my first novel, Crosstown (Toronto: The Riverbank Press), which was short-listed for the City of Toronto Book Award.
Humorous short pieces about my life as an at-home dad with four small children used to appear regularly in the Globe & Mail and Chatelaine, and can still be found fairly regularly on the back page of Today's Parent. I reworked some of this material into a full-length chunk of not-quite-non-fiction, which was published by HarperCollins as Still Life With Children.
I started writing children's fiction in 1998. Two middle-school novels, The Nose From Jupiter and The Way To Schenectady did well enough to require sequels. There are four Norbert books so far, and two Peelers.
My work has received a lot of attention in Canada and The United States. The Nose From Jupiter is a Canadian bestseller. It won a Mr Christie Book Award, was on most of the top ten lists and has been translated into a Scottish dozen languages (that’s less than 12). Bun Bun’s Birthday, From Charlie’s Point of View, Mystical Rose, and Into the Ravine made a variety of short lists and books of the year – Quill and Quire, Canadian Library Association, Globe and Mail, Chicago Public Library, Time Out NY (kids), blah blah. Ink Me is part of the “7” series – linked novels featuring seven grandsons with quests from their common grandfather. Pretty cool, eh? As my most recent book, it is my current favorite. But watch out for Zomboy next year. It’s a killer!
I have been writing since 1996. No, that's not true. I wrote for years before that, but no one cared. Since 1996 I've published fifteen books for adults and children. You can read more about them somewhere else on this site. A few of the books did very well. Some came close. A couple didn't do well at all. My most recent offering is Ink Me, a tragicomedy about a tattoo gone wrong, told in supercool phonetic speak by our learning-disabled hero. Zomboy – an undead story – is due out next year. (My editor and I are arguing about certain scenes right now.) And I am writing a semi-graphic novel about kids who fall into a comic book.
Do you want more details? Really? Okay, then.
In 1996 I published my first novel, Crosstown (Toronto: The Riverbank Press), which was short-listed for the City of Toronto Book Award.
Humorous short pieces about my life as an at-home dad with four small children used to appear regularly in the Globe & Mail and Chatelaine, and can still be found fairly regularly on the back page of Today's Parent. I reworked some of this material into a full-length chunk of not-quite-non-fiction, which was published by HarperCollins as Still Life With Children.
I started writing children's fiction in 1998. Two middle-school novels, The Nose From Jupiter and The Way To Schenectady did well enough to require sequels. There are four Norbert books so far, and two Peelers.
My work has received a lot of attention in Canada and The United States. The Nose From Jupiter is a Canadian bestseller. It won a Mr Christie Book Award, was on most of the top ten lists and has been translated into a Scottish dozen languages (that’s less than 12). Bun Bun’s Birthday, From Charlie’s Point of View, Mystical Rose, and Into the Ravine made a variety of short lists and books of the year – Quill and Quire, Canadian Library Association, Globe and Mail, Chicago Public Library, Time Out NY (kids), blah blah. Ink Me is part of the “7” series – linked novels featuring seven grandsons with quests from their common grandfather. Pretty cool, eh? As my most recent book, it is my current favorite. But watch out for Zomboy next year. It’s a killer!
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 15, 2017
Richard Scrimger is a delight to read. Who didn't love The Nose from Jupiter?!
This one is a perfect summer book, and since it involves a road trip, take it in the car with the fam!
Our narrator is 12 year old Jane. Her brothers are Bill (10) and Bernie (3). Her dad and grandma Helen and the kids are packed and ready to go from Toronto to Massachusetts by van to meet up with their mom who is down there at a conference. Then they'll visit an aunt. All good! It's mid-July, perfect time for a summer road trip.
Scrimger infuses this story and his characters with quirks and humour and wit along with tenderness and a lot of familial love. There are umpteen mishaps along the way; the van breaks down, maybe there's a small fire in the kitchen before they leave, smelly diapers (Bernie is not yet ready to go without), maybe they get locked out of their hotel room and can't remember their room number, and the usual sibling bantering in any typical long car ride.
Grandma Helen is not their fave person. Remarkably, and due to circumstances on the journey, she becomes the grandma the kids were missing and are gobsmacked that she evolved, and how, due to a stowaway in the van. No spoilers!
Dialogue is priceless, farmland and open two lane highways, rest stops, cows in fields all set the summer scene.
And then there's Marty. You must read to find out who Marty is.
Closeness is a given in a road trip. Then there's another kind of closeness that can happen. Both happen in The Way to Schenectady in a very nice way.
This one is a perfect summer book, and since it involves a road trip, take it in the car with the fam!
Our narrator is 12 year old Jane. Her brothers are Bill (10) and Bernie (3). Her dad and grandma Helen and the kids are packed and ready to go from Toronto to Massachusetts by van to meet up with their mom who is down there at a conference. Then they'll visit an aunt. All good! It's mid-July, perfect time for a summer road trip.
Scrimger infuses this story and his characters with quirks and humour and wit along with tenderness and a lot of familial love. There are umpteen mishaps along the way; the van breaks down, maybe there's a small fire in the kitchen before they leave, smelly diapers (Bernie is not yet ready to go without), maybe they get locked out of their hotel room and can't remember their room number, and the usual sibling bantering in any typical long car ride.
Grandma Helen is not their fave person. Remarkably, and due to circumstances on the journey, she becomes the grandma the kids were missing and are gobsmacked that she evolved, and how, due to a stowaway in the van. No spoilers!
Dialogue is priceless, farmland and open two lane highways, rest stops, cows in fields all set the summer scene.
And then there's Marty. You must read to find out who Marty is.
Closeness is a given in a road trip. Then there's another kind of closeness that can happen. Both happen in The Way to Schenectady in a very nice way.
Displaying 1 of 1 review