Language: G (0 swears 0 'f'); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG (peril)
BUYING ADVISORY: EL - OPTIONAL
APPEALS TO: SOME
12yo Teddy is easily distracted and has a hard time keeping his train of thought. But an electric model train received as a birthday gift changes everything. Soon Teddy can focus, as long as it's about trains. When he enters an essay contest he wins a cross country train ride from Toronto to Los Angeles. Along the route, he meets Olivia, and together they try to figure out why a set of blueprints of the special train are so very important to a grumpy old man and a strange woman.
I was super uncomfortable that 12yo Teddy (who seems like he's actually 9) would be offered a 1 way ticket, with no accompanying adult on a train that shifts routes along the way. The fact that his grandparents live in LA did not make this journey any less crazy. Also, the narrator talks directly to the reader which I hate. I love the game "Ticket to Ride" and while some of the illustrations, like his ticket, mirror the game, it wasn't really connected. Also, this is book 1 and it doesn't end, you've got to read book 2 to find out if Teddy gets home. I'm just barely this side of not recommending, as the action does pick up at the end. Teddy is white.
Lisa Librarian
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