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Summary
Summary
From the author of the Newbery Honor Book Everything on a Waffle
When his mother decides on a whim to be a missionary in Africa and drags his unwilling father with her, Henry is left in the care of his Aunts Magnolia and Pigg. Henry's sure they dislike him and he's trying to keep his distance, but that becomes more difficult when Mag decides they should take a destination-less road trip. Mag, convalescing from an illness that makes her look like death, is downright crabby. Pigg, tense from driving, is becoming more assertive and less willing to submit to Mag's whims. And while they poke each other - literally - Henry is finding it hard to keep his resolution.
They go to Virginia Beach (it's too hot); try camping in the Everglades (Henry accidentally spends four days floating in a swamp); visit their daddy, Henry's granddaddy (Henry's never met him!); and lose Pigg to love in Oklahoma (what would the radio psychologist Daly Kramer say?) before they finally receive word that Henry's parents are coming back and will meet them in Tulsa to finish the trip with Mag and Henry. But his parents are bickering and Henry is in despair - until he surrendersto the road and decides to let whatever happens happen, but to be there in it all.
Complete with her signature cast of eccentric characters, absurd situations, and heartfelt moments, Polly Horvath writes an on-the-road epic like no other!
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Horvath (The Canning Season) possesses the unique ability to make extraordinary events (such as brushes with death) appear perfectly ordinary while extracting something profound from occurrences as run-of-the-mill as a jaunt to the bookstore. In this novel filled with equally quirky characters and misadventures, the author traces 12-year-old narrator Henry's memorable summer road trip with his Aunt Magnolia and Aunt Pigg. His mother is acting as a Mormon missionary in Africa and has taken his father with her ("I don't wish to be known as Norman the Mormon," Henry's father says in one of many unforgettable lines), and they experience more than their fair share of excitement abroad (Henry's mother gets lost in the Ugandan jungle; his father contracts malaria). But the hero becomes involved in his own mini-drama, touring the southern states in an unairconditioned car with his bickering relatives. Along the way, the boy meets his grandfather for the first time, wanders off in the Everglades with an autistic child and bids adieu to Aunt Pigg, who decides to set down roots with a Texas rancher. The places Henry visits seem as arbitrary and disconnected as his chance encounters with colorful locals, but the sum of his experiences lead to some life-altering conclusions about surviving in an unpredictable world. At once poignant, funny and wise, this book gives new meaning to the phrase, "The best journeys never end." Ages 10-up. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Vacation becomes existential crucible in another cheery grotesque from Horvath. When Henry's mother abruptly decides to go to Africa as an unaffiliated missionary, Henry is marooned with his spinster aunts, Pigg and Magnolia. The narrative wastes no time taking Henry and the reader out of the mundane and into the surreal: almost immediately, Mag contracts a rare and disgusting blood disease that impels her -- and Pigg and Henry -- into the car on one of the most painfully aimless road trips ever recorded. The three drive and drive, their meandering punctuated by a three-way sniping that is both excruciating and bitingly funny. Henry's emotional isolation becomes complete in one bizarre sequence in which he floats through a Florida swamp for three days with only an autistic boy for company. The experience proves revelatory: ""It was almost as if, if I could be here, I mean be here and be okay, then I could be anywhere, it didn't really matter, and if I could be anywhere, I could never really be lost."" Appropriately enough, the tale never really ends, just keeps going in a celebration of the clarity that can come when one simply decides just to be. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-7. It can't be coincidence that Horvath uses the same framework for all her stories: an abandoned child finds him- or herself in the care of offbeat adults, usually relatives. Here, the child is Henry, whose parents have gone to Africa, leaving him with child-averse aunts, Magg and Pigg. After Magg recovers from an illness that causes her to bruise and bleed (She reminded me of a banana that's been kept too long. I expected fruit flies to begin gathering in her hair ), the trio go on vacation. They crisscross the country, fighting about where to go and disliking the place once they get there. If Horvath wants to show an endless car trip where people inside and outside the car (with a few exceptions) range from nasty to clueless, she succeeds. That's not to say that Horvath doesn't write well; she's her usual arch, amusing self. But when, at long, long last, Henry yells, How did I end up with such unpleasant people? readers may wonder the same thing. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2005 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-Horvath spins another delightfully offbeat yarn, complete with her signature cast of eccentric characters, wacky situations, poignant moments, and snappy dialogue. Twelve-year-old Henry's mother decides on a whim to be a missionary in Africa and drags his father along, leaving Henry in the care of his aunts, Magnolia and Pigg, for several months. Mag, turning 40 and recovering from an obscure disease, decides that they need a vacation. They embark on a destination-less car trip that feels more like a kidnapping to the boy. The aunts bicker and are nasty. Virginia Beach is too hot. In the Everglades, Henry accidentally spends four days floating in a swamp with an autistic boy. Pigg falls in love with a cowboy in Oklahoma and stays there. During the trip, they receive word that Henry's mother followed a chimp into the bush and got lost. She's finally found, but Henry's father contracts malaria. Eventually, word comes that the parents will meet Mag and Henry in Tulsa to finish the trip. Unfortunately, Henry's parents are either fighting or not speaking. Although at first he works hard to get them to see one another as he sees them, he finally realizes that he is not responsible for their happiness or their problems. Horvath again introduces a young person who is parentless for some reason and who is put in the care of distant, idiosyncratic relatives who change the child's perception of life. This latest book, like its predecessors, bounces from the hilarious to the heartrending. Another hit for Horvath.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
His impulsive mother having decided to do Good Works in Africa, 12-year-old Henry abruptly finds himself in the decidedly un-maternal care of quarrelsome, forty-ish aunts Magnolia and Pigg. In the wake of Mag's bout with a gruesome blood disease, the two decide to take a vacation in Virginia Beach--a vacation which turns into an aimless, marathon drive down to Florida, out through Texas, up to Mount Rushmore and thence on a swing through the Midwest. Along the way Henry floats into a swamp with an autistic child for three days, sees Aunt Pigg fall in love with a rancher, is reunited with his squabbling parents in Tulsa after their African sojourn collapses in disaster and ultimately comes round to the conviction that a person's character is best shaped from what's inside, not by outside circumstances. Fair enough--but the steady flow of sour outlooks, ill-humored repartee and self-pitying comments is a bit much, even for Horvath. Some will laugh; some will be put off, Horvath fans included. But a new offering from the queen of offbeat is always a welcome holiday. (Fiction. 11-13) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
From The Vacation I must admit the beach was hot. I do not know why I didn't expect this. I guess when you see beaches in magazine ads they look as if they are always a temperature for perfect comfort. We put our towels down, and Aunt Mag and Aunt Pigg lay on the sand where flies would land on them and then apparently change their minds. I watched this for a while. Then Aunt Magnolia sat up. "I'm too hot, Pigg," she said. "I know what you mean," said Aunt Pigg. "But let's give it a while longer" They lay down again, and then Aunt Magnolia said, "How much longer?" "Maybe we should get wet first," said Aunt Pigg. "Then we'll be just the right temperature." "I don't want to get in the water," said Aunt Magnolia. So Aunt Pigg went down to the water alone. She came back screaming. There were long thin whip marks over one shin. "Jellyfish," said Aunt Magnolia reflectively. "I've seen them on the Discovery Channel. Must be very painful." "Argh, argh, argh!" Aunt Pigg was shouting and hopping around on the good leg." "Well, just lie down on the sand and put some wet sand on it," suggested Aunt Magnolia. "Is that what you're supposed to do?" asked Aunt Pigg. "I don't know," said Aunt Magnolia, lying back down herself and closing her eyes. "You know, I think I'm beginning to enjoy this. I feel a cool breeze stirring." Excerpted from The Vacation by Polly Horvath All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.Table of Contents
| A Little History | p. 3 |
| The Flu | p. 10 |
| Magnolia Sickens | p. 22 |
| The Birthday Party | p. 28 |
| Aunt Magnolia's Idea | p. 33 |
| Virginia Beach | p. 41 |
| The Dogs O'Doodle | p. 46 |
| The Beach | p. 53 |
| Shenandoah | p. 61 |
| The Mall | p. 74 |
| Chet | p. 83 |
| Florida | p. 92 |
| The Four Towers | p. 107 |
| Texas | p. 130 |
| Oklahoma | p. 136 |
| Colorado | p. 152 |
| Mount Rushmore | p. 166 |
| Cat-Squishing Day | p. 172 |
| Welcome to Iowa | p. 191 |