Train I Ride

by Paul Mosier

Overview

4 starred reviews! "Heartbreaking, hilarious, and life-affirming" (Ami Polonsky, author of Gracefully Grayson and Threads)

Rydr is on a train heading east, leaving California, where her gramma can’t take care of her anymore, and traveling to Chicago, to live with an unknown relative. She brings with her a backpack, memories both happy and sad, and a box containing something very important.

As Rydr meets her fellow passengers and learns their stories, her own story begins to emerge. It’s one of sadness and heartache, and one Rydr would sometimes like to forget.

But as much as Rydr may want to run away from her past, on the train she finds that hope and forgiveness are all around her, and most importantly, within her, if she’s willing to look for it.

From Publishers Weekly Flying Start author Paul Mosier comes a poignant story about a young girl’s travels by train from Los Angeles to Chicago in which she learns along the way that she can find family wherever she is. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead and Sharon Creech.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062455734
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	01/24/2017
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	435,518
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	720L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Paul Mosier began writing novels in 2011 but has written in some fashion his entire life. He lives a short walk from the place of his birth in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, but it has been a very circuitous route that brought him there. He is married and is a father to two lovely daughters. He loves listening to baseball on the radio, eating vegetarian food, drinking coffee, talking nonstop, and riding trains. In fact, he has ridden most of the route described in Train I Ride, which is his debut novel. Visit him on Facebook or on his blog, www.novelistpaulmosier.wordpress.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 12/12/2016
At 12, Rydr (as she takes to calling herself) has known only hurt, loss, and upheaval. She never met her father, witnessed her mother’s fatal drug overdose, and moved in with her stony grandmother, where life was “comfortably dreadful.” Mosier sets his piercing debut novel on the train carrying Rydr from Los Angeles to Chicago to live with a great-uncle she’s never met, following her grandmother’s death. Rydr’s frank internal monologue and the friendships she forges with fellow passengers shape an emotionally expansive and deeply affecting story. Among those who help Rydr overcome her anger at the family that failed her are the compassionate young man running the snack counter, who ignores her sticky fingers, and a thoughtful boy traveling with his scout troop, who shares his vulnerability with Rydr, as well as his cherished copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. Through understated storytelling, Mosier movingly shows how Rydr’s bitterness gives way to self-acceptance, a willingness to trust others, and hope for the future. Heartbreaking and unforgettable. Ages 8–12. Agent: Wendy Schmalz, Wendy Schmalz Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

11/01/2016
Gr 4–6—Rydr is Chicago-bound on an Amtrak train from Palm Springs, CA. Leaving her recently deceased grandmother, Rydr travels through the West and Midwest toward an uncertain future with a distant and unknown relative. Rydr is used to making her way through life solo and is still working through her mother's struggle with drugs and subsequent death. Armed with her SpongeBob wristwatch and subsisting on a diet of doughnut holes and veggie burgers, Rydr spends her journey meeting a variety of passengers and avoiding Dorothea, her assigned chaperone. Through her interactions with Carlos, a writer paid by the train company to put pen to paper, and Tenderchunks, a poetry-loving Boy Scout, Rydr finds comfort in words and gains a new outlook on her future. In this debut novel, Mosier gives middle grade readers a character who battles life's challenges with extreme honesty and doesn't sugarcoat her inner battles. VERDICT A tale that will stay with readers long after they reach the final destination. A strong purchase for middle grade collections.—Claire Moore, Darien Library, CT

School Library Journal

★ 2016-09-19
Rydr, as she calls herself, is trying to put a brave face on a journey that feels much like doom.The 13-year-old, hungry and broke, is the daughter of an addicted mom who used to have public embarrassmentsbut now shes dead. Her reluctant grandmother (also now dead), whose best quality was her excellent pancakes, was her next not-quite-a-caregiver. Now the girl, battered by life but always resiliently and often cleverly struggling forward, is on a long train trip from Palm Springs to Chicago, where shell be placed with an elderly great-uncle she doesnt know but whose monthly check will get bigger when she arrives. During the journey shes under the care of, then befriended and perhaps even saved by, Dorothea, an Amtrak escort, Neal, a gay snack bar worker, Carlos, a traveling poet, and an antipathetic Boy Scout called Tenderchunks who touches her heart. Along the way Rydr will savor her first kiss, run away from the train and her memoriesbut returnleave the burden of her mothers ashes in an Iowa wood, and nearly destroy a restroom while trying to cope with her excruciating recollections. Her pluck and her perceptive narrative voice combine to make her brief yet deeply affecting connections with caring strangers plausible although occurring over the course of just a few days. Race and culture are implied in naming convention and speech patterns, with characters defaulting to white. A harrowing, moving, immersive, and ultimately uplifting debut novel. (Fiction. 11-16)

Kirkus Reviews

Rydr herself is sympathetic, and she’s got a believable voice, a mix of vulnerability, edginess, and raw fury at her rotten luck. Readers who like drama, sentiment, and tidy, tearful endings may find this to be the ticket.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

★ “In his first novel, Mosier offers a cast of well-drawn characters, an unusual setting, and a rewarding reading experience.

Booklist (starred review)