Julia and the Art of Practical Travel

Gr 4–7—Julia Lancaster, 11, lives happily with her very proper grandmother and Aunt Constance in their family's historic home, Windy Ridge, in 1968. She knows that her mother has left her to become a hippie but doesn't have a clear picture of why or what being hippie really means. Julia's life changes drastically when her grandmother dies the next day. The girl's beloved home and all its contents are sold, and she and Aunt Constance leave New York's Hudson Valley to find Julia's mother. They set out in a station wagon jammed packed with the family's "essential" things for travel, including a silver tea set, candlestick, and an assortment of furs and other finery. These are the things, Aunt Constance tells her, that make them Lancasters. Their search takes them on an adventure around the country, and Julia's world broadens with each stop. She sees exactly what hippies are in Greenwich Village; in New Orleans they confer with a voodoo priestess who counsels them that they will see Julia's mother but not find her. In Texas, they enjoy the hospitality of a rancher with a staff of Chinese cowboys, and on through the southwest, where they meet the sheriff and only resident of a deserted gold-mining town. Each character is delightful and quirky, and readers will enjoy all of them. The story comes to a somewhat predictable conclusion, but it hardly matters. This book is filled with familial love and the joy of traveling, and readers will appreciate Julia's journey.—Patricia Feriano, Montgomery County Public Schools, MD