Since Leo’s grandfather died, his grandmother has spent a lot of her time wandering around the park, walking by the river, eating free grocery store samples, reading at the library, or sitting at a table at Good Eats, the 24-hour donut shop. Missing her husband is Gram’s full-time job. Leo’s job is to find her whenever she goes missing. Early one Saturday evening, Leo finds his grandmother drinking coffee at Good Eats surrounded by National Geographic magazines and a United States road map. She and her husband used to travel around the country. One trip they never took was to see the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Price, Utah. While Leo urges his grandmother to go home, Abbey, waitress and third cousin, encourages her to go to Utah. Before he knows it, Leo isn’t taking Gram home, but accompanying her across the United States. Abbey helps Gram drive the big, aging Buick while Leo sits in the back seat with Kermit, Abbey’s gas-passing dog. Leo keeps thinking about how mad his mother is going to be when she finds out, but he can’t change the course of this inevitable journey. From Allentown, Pennsylvania, to the Field Museum in Chicago to Nebraska to Utah. In Nebraska, Gram ditches Leo and Abbey and heads to Utah on her own. They borrow a car and follow her. A tattoo and a bear encounter later, Leo learns that the trip never was about seeing dinosaurs. It was about family and friendship. And, it was about life- about avoiding extinction.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com ( )

This book about Leo, a boy whos chore it was to chase after his grandmother when she wandered after the passing of his father. But this time grandma travels too far. Leo hops in the car with his cousin and Kermit the dog to go on a journey to find grandmother.

I recommend this book for grades 4 and up. I would include this book on my shelf in my classroom and encourage my students to try it out and see how they like it. ( )