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| Wish You Were Here | 
 enlarge | Author: Catherine Clark
Publisher: HarperTeen
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $1.65
You Save: $15.34 (90%)
Buy New/Used from $1.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  (3 reviews)
Sales Rank: 226232
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060559837
EAN: 9780060559830
ASIN: 0060559837
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Release Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The next morning we meet at the world headquarters of Leisure-Lee Tours. Which is a sentence I never thought I'd write. Ariel Flack never thought she'd write a postcard saying "Wish you were here," especially to Dylan, the boy she's had a crush on forever and is finally (sort of) dating. She also didn't know she'd be sending that postcard from the family vacation from hell?a two-week geriatric bus tour with her crazy mom, annoying sister, embarrassing uncle, and frighteningly energetic grandparents. As South Dakota rolls by at five miles an hour, Ariel begins to learn that sometimes life is just too complicated to fit on a postcard. Sometimes your parents let you down (and sometimes they don't). Sometimes you meet an unexpected fellow traveler. And sometimes you just have to go where the road takes you?even if the tour bus won't.
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| Customer Reviews:
The Compulsive Reader's Reviews July 16, 2008
Ariel (no, not the little mermaid) knows her mother has completely lost it when she drags her and her little sister on a road trip for a "bonding experience" the summer after her parent's divorce. And not just any road trip, but a bus tour complete with cheesy tour guides, Oklahoma! music and a plethora of senior citizens. Thankfully, she is saved from complete insanity by Andre, who is also forced to accompany his crazy mother and her beloved Chihuahua. But besides making things bearable, Andre also makes things quite complex. Fasten your seatbelts for this one, it's going to be a long, crazy, and hilarious ride.
Impulsive, laugh out loud funny, and unforgettable, Wish You Were Here will take you on a trip with a cast of fun, eccentric characters, and a plot line that can't be beat. Catherine Clark does it again, weaving her talent for painting clever and colorful characters with real to life issues and dysfunctional families to reveal a poignant, expressive, witty, and lovable story. Fans of Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes will enjoy this one, although Wish You Were Here is certainly a novel of its own class. Ariel is a strong, humorous, and down to earth narrator whose incisive and grounded voice will attract readers of all ages. Clark fans will be hard pressed not to miss this one.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too April 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What do you get when you combine a bus load of senior citizens, a couple of teens, a mailman with a fear of squirrels, and a stowaway Chihuahua? Pick up a copy of WISH YOU WERE HERE, and you'll find out.
Ariel Flack, not named after the little mermaid, is about to embark on the adventure of her life. Her mother recently divorced her gambling-addict husband and has decided a road trip is just what they need. However, Ariel and her younger sister are shocked to learn that their dear mother has not been completely truthful. Instead of traveling by car, they are joining their grandparents and their eccentric uncle on a week-long bus tour.
The prospect of spending even a short time in the company of a bus load of senior citizens being escorted by a wacky husband and wife tour guide team has Ariel ready to lace up her favorite running shoes and head for the hills. She had to leave behind her new boyfriend and her beloved cat for this! Fortunately, the seating arrangements place her next to another frustrated teen named Andre who was also tricked into the tour by his controlling mother.
Together Ariel and Andre find ways to endure the agony of the Leisure-Lee bus tour company's idea of a good time - endless listening to the soundtrack of Oklahoma, visiting scenic wonders like the one of the world's largest ball of knitting yarn, and eating buffalo burgers in the Badlands. At times the two seriously consider ditching the tour and heading off on their own, but in the end, they both discover more than they bargained for on this crazy adventure.
I've always been a fan of Catherine Clark's work, and I'm happy to say, I think WISH YOU WERE HERE is her best yet. There are wonderful characters, great humor, and heart-warming family moments that make this a delightful read.
Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
Get On the Bus April 3, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Before leaving for her summer road trip with her family, there are a few things Ariel has to do:
1) Go to Target (she's been there five times in two days to prepare for her trip)
2) Pack up her Skittles (she has six bags stashed in her desk drawer)
3) Say good-bye to her "semi-new, semi-boyfriend" Dylan (they've been dating for two weeks)
4) Temporarily give her cat to her paternal grandparents (Gloves can't come on their trip)
5) Stock up on postcards and stamps (so she can write to Dylan, her friend Sarah, and, yes, even Gloves)
Once those things are done - and they are, about twenty pages in, quickly moving the story along - Ariel thinks she's ready for her trip. By that time, readers know this road trip with her family won't be like any that she's had before, because er dad won't be coming along.
"The whole blackjack craze. Dad got swept up in it. Like, literally, off his chair and onto the floor and into the dustbin on history. From there, it was an easy trip to the horse track, etc."
Ariel's father spent his life savings on bets. When that ran out, he used the kids' college savings. When that ran out, he embezzled from his company. Throughout it all, he kept his gambling a secret from his family. Finally, he was found out, arrested, and released due to a lack of state's evidence. Now, he's living with his parents, separated from his two daughters and his (ex-)wife, and his oldest daughter is having a hard time believing that her father, the guy who seemed so solid, who helped her pick out her cat from the Humane Society seven years ago, could have done this to his family.
But maybe she can. After all, this is also the man who gave his daughters their names by randomly flipping to pages in a baby name book and pointing.
Her bags packed with lots of socks, shirts, books, notebooks, postcards, and Skittles, Ariel gets into the car with her mother and her younger sister, Zena. Mom, the author of three self-help books, decides that this will be a "realsimple" summer free of cell phones, emails, and computers - hence Ariel's stockpile of stamps and postcards.
Like a pair of Ariel's running shoes, the relationship between the sisters is comfortable and well-worn. They are close but dissimilar. Twelve-year-old Zena would rather read glossy magazines than novels. She prefers flirting to running and covers almost all of her food in ketchup. She has her mother's flyway curly-wavy-blondish hair and curves. Sixteen-year-old Ariel thinks her sister has the body she's supposed to have, and vice-versa. She calls Zena "twelvunerable."
Not even one full day into their trip, Ariel's mother reveals the truth: They aren't going to drive across the country. Instead, they're going to take a bus trip . . . with her maternal grandparents . . . and her Uncle Jeff, who quit his job as a postal carrier after being attacked by squirrels . . . and a busload of strangers, most of which are senior citizens. The only exceptions are a family from Germany; the gung-ho trip leaders, Australian Lenny and American Jenny; and a well-dressed woman and her son, Andre, who looks like he wants to be there as much as Ariel does.
This ought to be fun.
And it is. As the story carries its passengers off the beaten path, readers will feel as if they are seated right next to Ariel on the bus. Jenny and Lenny keep their traveling itinerary a surprise, claiming that it helps people relax, while it only makes Ariel more jumpy. She hopes she'll be able to meet up with Dylan, who is spending his summer as a counselor at a summer camp.
Each character has his or her own distinct personality. Ariel is sometimes stunned by the other passengers, but none more than her family members. Who knew that her grandfather was so fit that he could easily keep up with her while running?
The dialogue is realistic and quick. Ariel's relatives enjoy using faux portmanteaus and invented words like "fantasterrific," while Andre, frequently seen highlighting words in his vocabulary book, tends to use three synonyms in a row ("It's fantastic. Terrific. Amazing.") Postcards, most of them written to Dylan, separate the chapters while marking their stops along the way.
Just when Ariel starts to enjoy the trip - especially, and unexpectedly, her camaraderie with Andre - the appearances and absences of other characters shake up her already unpredictable summer.
From the author of The Alison Rules comes the story of an atypical family's atypical time on the road. Wish You Were Here by Catherine Clark is a fun trip, so get on the bus, stow your bags, and settle in.
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