'I've got my entire life planned out for the next ten years - including my PhD and Pulitzer Prize,' claims 16-year-old overachiever Vassar Spore, daughter of overachiever parents, who in true overachiever fashion named her after an elite women's college. Vassar expects her sophomore summer to include AP and AAP (Advanced Advanced Placement) classes. Surprise! Enter a world-traveling relative who sends her plans into a tailspin when she blackmails Vassar's parents into forcing their only child to backpack with her through Southeast Asia. On a journey from Malaysia to Cambodia to the remote jungles of Laos, Vassar sweats, falls in love, hones her outdoor survival skills - and uncovers a family secret that turns her whole world upside-down.Vassar Spore can plan on one thing: she'll never be the same again. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Take a traveler as reluctant as Anne Tyler's accidental tourist and add the number of misadventures found in The Out-of-Towners, and you have the recipe for Cornwell's hilarious, adventure-packed first novel. Valedictorian hopeful Vassar Spore has her summer all planned out when her bohemian grandmother somehow blackmails her Type A parents into letting her take Vassar backpacking through Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos. So instead of enrolling in AP courses in summer school, Vassar finds herself hiking through jungles with Grandma Gerd and an Asian cowboy chaperone, and battling food poisoning, venom-carrying critters and primitive tribes (one of which holds Vassar hostage). The more humiliations and unwanted surprises Vassar endures, the more likable she becomes, shedding pride and primness along with her obsessive reliance on routine. Her rapid succession of crises, while jaw-dropping, appears more plausible than the family secret that is revealed bit by bit during the course of their travels. Although readers will probably figure out the mystery long before the protagonist does, the exotic settings and the wacky predicaments will exercise a strong enough grip to hold readers' imaginations. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 7 Up-When she is blackmailed into backpacking across Southeast Asia with a grandmother she barely knows, 16-year-old Vassar Spore is reluctant to disrupt a summer devoted to furthering her life plan-to become class valedictorian and win a Pulitzer Prize. The overachieving teen, named for the college she hopes to attend, overhears her parents arguing with Grandma Gerd about a "Big Secret" and is shocked that they've agreed to send her off to the jungles of Malaysia. Vassar arrives at the Golden Lotus guesthouse with a mountain of luggage and a plan to write a novel about the trip for her AAP (Advanced Advanced) English class. As the setting shifts, so does the story's tone, from Vassar's stilted home life and stuffy parents to a vividly described environment and array of colorful characters focusing on her bohemian artist grandmother and a comical Malaysian bodyguard, Hanks, whose Elvis haircut and cowboy drawl both irritate and captivate his charge. Vassar begins chronicling the travel adventures of Sarah, her fictional alter ego, as the trio trek through cities and the lush and humid jungles of Cambodia and Laos while Grandma Gerd offers cryptic hints about the mysterious family secret. Committing a lion's share of cultural faux pas, Vassar accidentally angers one tribal family and is imprisoned by opium-smoking animists. In a climactic episode, she escapes the bamboo dungeon and blindly heads down a dangerously steep jungle mountain. Suspenseful and wonderfully detailed, the well-crafted story maintains its page-turning pace while adding small doses of cultural insight and humor.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Like her parents, 16-year-old Vassar is a Planner with a capital P! She leaves nothing to chance (guess where she plans to go to college?). Never, that is, until the doorbell rings one night, and before you can say unexpected, Vassar finds herself backpacking through the jungles of Southeast Asia with Gertrude, her madcap artist grandmother. How could her parents have permitted this? Well, it has something to do with what Vassar thinks of as The Big Secret. Will she solve the mystery before she's completely undone by fallout from Grandma's relentless acts of spontaneity? What do you think? Although too long and too filled with accounts of Vassar's endless toilet troubles, this first novel has its amusements and diversions, including Vassar's share of romance with a self-styled Malaysian cowboy. The best part, however, is the vividly realized setting. Cornwell has obviously been there and done that, and her novel is much the richer and funnier for it.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2007 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.