In her sophomore middle-grade novel, Christina Uss uses vivid language and unforgettable characters to tell an uplifting, hopeful story about a traffic-obsessed, motion sickness-prone boy.
For years, 11-year-old Rick Rusek has studied Los Angeles's traffic problems and crafted ways to fix them. He hopes his "Snarl Solutions" will improve traffic flow enough that his parents' catering business won't have to close. Knowing he needs help, Rick joins his neighbor's Girl Scout troop, which is creating a public art project led by a famous artist who's related to the head of L.A.'s Department of Transportation. Deeming himself the "Colossus of Roads," Rick uses the project to move his own agenda forward. But being a vigilante isn't easy, and to succeed Rick will have to fight anti-car cyclists, a group of super-slow-driving grandparents and his chronic, burdensome motion sickness.
In The Colossus of Roads, Christina Uss (The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle) masterfully demonstrates the complications of living with a chronic illness, including missed opportunities, financial stressors and limited medical care. Not only does Uss depict a family struggling, she also shows how they make the best of a tough situation, like turning a tasteless economical meal into family night in front of the TV. Uss's imaginative writing adds an extra dimension to her storytelling: what could have been simple descriptions of a traffic-alert website become green "liquid peace" and red "bleeding scabs picked from a skateboarder's knees." This colorful language, combined with quirky, memorable characters, like a bright-red Cadillac-driving Abuelita, round out a charming story about resilience and persistence. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader