The Great Peach Experiment 1

February 15, 2021
A family heals through food truck adventures. Twelve-year-old Lucy, 10-year-old Freddy, and 8-year-old Herb Peach lost their mom two years ago to cancer. Their dad retreated into his academic work, leaving Lucy to pick up the slack both as consoling parental figure to her brothers and competent scheduler of daily activities. When their father informs them that one of their mom's inventions has sold for $1.3 million, the children excitedly plot what to do with the money--until he tells them that he has bought a used food truck and they will drive around the country in it, fulfilling one of her dreams. He suggests that they tour the Midwest, selling pies. The kids, especially Lucy, are skeptical, since their father has been neither constant nor practical, but they hope that this can bring the family together, i.e., bring their father back, and they're willing to try--and besides it was their mother's dream. Many, many mishaps and adventures follow the Peaches through their Midwest foray, each relayed with understated insight, while the adroit characterization of the self-absorbedly neglectful dad is heart-rending. On occasion, the plot twists veer to the delightfully quirky, and the whole tale is filled with both authenticity and originality. All characters read as default White. Both bittersweet and uplifting; simply sparkles with life. (Fiction. 8-12)

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January 14, 2022

Gr 3-6-Lucy Peach and her two younger brothers, Freddy and Herb, have been navigating the last two years pretty much on their own since their mother died of cancer. Their grieving father has buried himself deep into his work as a geology professor at the local university. As summer vacation approaches, the kids are told that their father has spontaneously purchased a used food truck and the summer will be spent peddling peach pie around the Midwest using their great-aunt Lucinda's recipe. Knowing nothing about the business, the family embarks on an adventure together with the goal of winning the Ohio Food Truck Festival grand prize of $10,000 at the end of the summer. Father Peach is a real stickler for maintaining a schedule, and the kids are once again lost in the shuffle of his ideas and demands. It isn't until Lucy finally finds her voice that things begin to change. Told in third-person perspective, this coming-of-age novel delves deep into the feelings of all three Peach children and the aftermath of losing such an integral person in the family. All characters are cued as white. VERDICT A solid purchase for libraries where novels dealing with grief, family, and finding one's voice are needed.-Tracy Cronce

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