Lesley M.M. Blume (Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters) crafts a charming story about 11-year-old narrator Julia Lancaster finding her family while in search of her mother.
In the summer of 1968, after her grandmother dies and the family estate is sold off, Julia and her Aunt Constance journey across the country to find her mother, who is estranged from the family. To prepare for the trip, Aunt Constance has packed her most practical travel items--silver candlesticks, Oriental carpets, steamer trunks and Julia's beloved Brownie camera (photographs from which illustrate much of the book). While readers know these are not, in fact, practical items, they reveal Constance's outlook on proper society and foreshadow the societal changes occurring in the United States. Their journey takes them from New York City's Greenwich Village to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. Along the way, they encounter a New Orleans society lady who knows more than she tells, a Texas big game hunter who arranges a javelina hunt, and a Nevada man who is sheriff of a town in which he is the only resident. Each of these characters provides an adventure for Julia and Aunt Constance to test their mettle, and they each recognize they are stronger than they once thought.
By the time Julia and Constance finally reach San Francisco, they've learned that the journey is just as important as the destination and that the most important family is the one who loves you and cares for you. --Cathy Berner, Blue Willow Bookshop