Northward to the Moon
Grade 4-7 The characters from Polly Horvath'sMy One Hundred Adventures(2008) return in this charming sequel (2010, both Schwartz  Wade). Jane Fielding and her family have been living in Canada, about as far away from their beach home in Massachusetts as you can get. Jane's new step-father Ned is baffled when he loses his job teaching French a language he doesn't actually speak ("I always looked on it as a kind of a frill"). They decide to move back to their beach home, but detours slow their return. Ned discovers that his brother has left a suitcase full of cash in his care, so he piles the family into the ancient car to return the money. They end up on a ranch in Nevada, and Jane develops her first serious crush on a young ranch hand. The plot is slight, but the language and characters are delicious. Becca Battoe's youthful narration allows listeners to see everything from Jane's perspective, and her gift of timing and inflection produce many laugh-out-loud moments. A delightful story.Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theAudio CDedition.