In shock and unable to speak after being in a car accident in Oregon which has killed his parents, seventeen-year-old Adam journeys across the country to his home in Rhode Island. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Seventeen-year-old Adam, an only child, enjoys a comfortable and happy life with his parents, who own a bookstore in Bristol, R.I. ("It was like the three of us were siblings"). On a return trip from Idaho, where they attended a peace protest, their car collides with a deer. Adam is uninjured, but his parents are killed (they had not been wearing seat belts). The shock of their deaths leaves Adam speechless ("I didn't have amnesia exactly.... It was just that things weren't connecting in my brain"). Adam leaves the scene before help arrives, and because he cannot speak, he has no way of contacting his aunt. For a few weeks he lives with a young woman, but after the words "go home" pop into his head, he hitchhikes his way back to Rhode Island. The drivers he encounters are sometimes polite but more often cruel. Easton's (The Life History of a Star) technique of shifting between the present and the past, through Adam's first-person narrative, allows readers to understand more about him and his life before the accident, including his sense of humor and insight. (In describing the moment when he first truly talks to his high school crush, he says, "It was one of those rare moments where life hands you what you most want.") The author leaves readers with the knowledge that there are still challenges ahead for Adam, but nothing he can't handle. Ages 12-up. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 8 Up-In a state of shock, 17-year-old Adam walks away from the scene of the car accident that has killed his parents. Stranded on a lonely road in rural Idaho, he heads east, on foot, as random snippets of memory wander in and out of his mind. Too traumatized to speak, his silence is misinterpreted by the succession of characters he meets on the odyssey home to Rhode Island. Stumbling upon a Wiccan meeting in a forest, he is taken in by one of the chatty young women and takes a job as a dishwasher in a local diner, where he is treated as deaf. Weeks later, he hitchhikes with a trucker and finds backbreaking work in Colorado fields with Mexican migrant farmers. He struggles to survive as he devours a frozen pizza found in a taxidermist's cabin, sleeps in a Dumpster, crashes a picnic, and steals a car. The adventures intertwine with thoughts about his girlfriend, locker-room antics, his parents, their bookstore, and his autistic cousin-spontaneously, as if his mind has short-circuited from the crash. Adam, though still mute, arrives home emotionally ready to accept his parents' death.While some situations seem far-fetched and there is some raw language, readers will be caught up in the teen's predicament.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

What is it like to be suddenly homeless, orphaned, and speechless? Adam, 17, survives the car crash that kills his parents in Idaho, but though he is physically unhurt, he is traumatized and cannot talk. In shock, he tries to get back to the family's bookstore in Rhode Island, hitching rides with families, truck drivers, even illegal farmworkers. He steals a car; he sleeps in dumpsters; other teens beat him up. His mind is clear, and memories of his idyllic family are woven into the survival journey, along with recollections of his pals and his gorgeous perfect girlfriend, Myra, including how they got together and their decision to have sex. Although it seems unrealistic that an accident victim's memories would be as clear as Adam's are, the contemporary road adventure is told with terse drama, and occasional rough language that fits the raw emotion of the story. During his travels, Adam thinks of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (1987), and readers will want to pair that story with this one, as well as with other books about the journey home. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2006 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.