Road Trip!

September 15, 2022
Three titans of industry (and one writer) rough it. Inventor Thomas Edison and car manufacturer Henry Ford are tired from their jobs making "life easier for others." They decide to go on vacation and motor off to explore the country in one of Ford's Model T's. They invite along their friend nature writer John Burroughs; the next summer, Ford and Edison take another trip, this time with tire kingpin Harvey Firestone. Finally, all four of them decide to travel together, and the foursome innovate the road trip. The book describes the places they visited, the activities they enjoyed, and how these stuffy old figures from history "acted more like kids at camp than men on vacation." Busy illustrations in a muted palette, reminiscent of sepia films highlighted with green and orange, help make this feel like an old-timey movie. While some children, especially those with an interest in history, will get a kick out of this lighthearted but informational text, the niche topic will limit its audience. Furthermore, the overall cheerful tone means that Henry Ford--an outspoken Nazi sympathizer admired greatly by Adolf Hitler--comes off as a peculiar but lovable gentleman, a complicated authorial choice. Extensive backmatter includes photographs, a map, and further anecdotes from the foursome's joint vacations, which stretched over a decade. (This book was reviewed digitally.) This car-centered history lesson is a lemon. (afterword, bibliography, further resources, photo credits) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 15, 2022
Grades 2-4 Whatever grown-ups of today might think about four rich white dudes styling themselves "vagabonds" and semipublicly motoring off each summer with a large entourage to "camp," younger readers will enjoy Friddell's sprightly account of how an American supergroup--Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone (think: tires), and nature writer John Burroughs, with occasional hangers-on like (wait for it) Warren G. Harding--got together for a series of annual tours from 1914 on that took them from the Everglades to the California coast. In stylized illustrations, Holmes kits out his otherwise recognizable figures in pale faces with cheek spots, like mimes, and poses them, sometimes comically, in settings ranging from elaborately detailed workshops to spacious outdoor scenes. In the back matter--along with quotes, funny anecdotes, substantial resource lists, and photographs of these luminaries roughing it in their three-piece suits--the author suggests a larger historical context by claiming that news coverage of the outings actually planted the whole notion of "recreational camping" in the public mind. It's possible, and, either way, the book presents a colorful bit of Americana.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 1, 2022

Gr 3-6-An entertaining and informative picture book describing the camping adventures of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone. These famous men formed a friendship and shared a great love of the outdoors, calling themselves the Four Vagabonds. Their famous road trips inspired other Americans to discover the treasures in nature with a then new favorite pastime-recreational camping. The illustrations are bright and detailed with humorous speech bubbles in some panels and the four friends depicted as amusing caricatures. The afterword includes a detailed history of these four fellows, where they traveled, and why their adventures eventually came to an end. There are also photographs of the camping trips, their firsthand accounts, as well as accounts from some of the people they met on their trips. A detailed resource list is included for further research. VERDICT This is a dynamic and engaging book to complement units on inventors, nature, and camping. It is sure to spark further exploration of these famous men in history, and presents quite a contrast with what young people know of today's founders and start-up entrepreneurs.-Heidi Dechief

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.