Rating: WORTHY!
This was a middle grade novel about two young kids with single parents who happen to be dating and getting serious about each other. I was first attracted by the title, which I thought was amusing, and when I started listening to the audiobook, I was drawn in by the characters. I had some issues with it, but overall I consider it a worthy read for the intended age group.
Sutton is the girl who is intellectual, and interested in science and in particular in programming a little robot to navigate a maze, at which she is experiencing some difficulties. Sutton's mom and dad are separated; her mom is currently in Antarctica studying penguins, and so misses Sutton's tenth birthday.
Luis is biracial and his father is dead. His mom is dating Sutton's dad and the parents are at a point where they decide to bring the kids together for a family-style outing to a museum. Sutton is not impressed. Luis finds her impossible to talk to because she seems uninterested in anything in which he's interested and, resentfully missing her mom, Sutton is uninterested in trying make much conversation. Luis has his own issues to deal with, being allergic to an assortment of items from pollen to peanuts to bee venom, and on and on.
Going on a hike is hardly a charmed idea for their second family get-together then, especially since Luis doesn't seem to have heard of an epipen and neither of them seem to understand that there's a technique to pulling out a bee stinger if you don't want to inject even more venom into the wound.
I think these two kids have been let down by their parents in several ways, but on this hike, it's all on the kids! The two of them decide to follow an alternate route to their parents and end up somewhere out of sight and out of audio range of mom and dad. How exactly that happens is a bit glossed over. Sutton is supposed to be the smart one, Luis the imaginative one who is working on writing his own adventure novel, yet neither one of these kids thinks to retrace their steps to get back to their parents! Instead, they set off on a trek through the woods, which of course bonds them and magically fixes all their issues.
For me this was a bit trite, clichéd and simplistic, but for the intended age group, it will probably do. I felt it could have been better, but for the audience it's aimed at, I consider it a worthy read. I just felt it could have been a lot more educational had the author put in a little effort, but it'll do as is, I guess.
