Applewhites Coast to Coast

by Stephanie S. Tolan, R. J. Tolan

Overview

This third story about the madcap family introduced in Stephanie Tolan’s Newbery Honor Book Surviving the Applewhites features even more outlandish adventures and will appeal to fans of the Applewhites and those meeting them for the first time.

E.D. and Jake are doing their best to forget their bewildering kiss—after all, they’re practically family—and get back to “normal” life with the decidedly abnormal, highly creative Applewhites.

When the family’s biggest fan, Jeremy Bernstein, pulls up to Wit’s End in an “Art Bus,” he brings with him a proposal for an Education Expedition: a cross-country road trip, educational quest, and video-documented competition for a big cash prize. Jeremy also drags along his troubled but beautiful niece, Melody. She’ll be joining the expedition with her own rebellious flair, much to Jake’s delight . . . and E.D.’s exasperation.

With characteristic Applewhite enthusiasm, the artists face disastrous performances, fainting goats, and some very bad ideas—but can they make it through the road trip in one piece?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062133243
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Stephanie S. Tolan is the author of more than twenty-five books for young readers, including Listen!, which won the Christopher Award and the Henry Bergh ASPCA Award. Her New York Times bestselling novel Surviving the Applewhites received a Newbery Honor and was named a Smithsonian Notable Children’s Book, a School Library Journal Best Book for Children, an ALA Booklist Editor’s Choice, an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book, and an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. Tolan has left her home by the small lake in a big woods of North Carolina and now lives in the Hudson River Valley of upstate New York with a view of the Catskills Mountains and the prospect of wintertime cross country skiing. You can visit her online at www.stephanietolan.com.

Editorial Reviews

With the same madcap shenanigans that made the previous two books big winners...the laughs are plentiful at every stop along the way.... There’s not much else like the Applewhites in kid lit, so enjoy the ride!” — Booklist (starred review)

“Filled with humorous mishaps and roadside wonders, the Applewhites’s rambling journey...[is] great fun for fans of the series.” — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

With the same madcap shenanigans that made the previous two books big winners...the laughs are plentiful at every stop along the way.... There’s not much else like the Applewhites in kid lit, so enjoy the ride!

Booklist (starred review)

10/01/2017
Gr 5–8—In this third installment, the free-spirited artists take their outlandish adventures on the road. Events are once again narrated from the point of view of E.D. (Edith), 13, the only organized member of this otherwise-flighty clan, and Jake Semple, onetime delinquent who arrived at the Applewhites's home school a year ago, discovered his passion for musical theater, and now is part of the family. As both teens are still reeling from the unexpected kiss shared on the final page of Applewhites at Wit's End, the family jumps at an irresistible opportunity: a wealthy couple is mounting an Education Expedition wherein groups of creative types take students across the country on refurbished school buses on an "adventurous educational quest" to be documented by video logs televised nationally, with the winners earning accolades (and a hefty cash prize). With preparations being made, rather haphazardly, E.D. has her doubts about the trip, concerns made deeper by the presence of the gorgeous and contemptuous Melody Aiko Bernstein, "troubled" niece of a family friend, whom Jake keeps staring at "like a puppy that has just caught sight of its first biscuit." Filled with humorous mishaps and roadside wonders, the Applewhites's rambling journey from Rhode Island to California provides opportunity for new experiences and emotional growth as E.D. is pushed out of her comfort zone, Jake wrestles with his rule-breaking proclivities, and both discover the importance of remaining true to one's heart—and one's art. VERDICT Great fun for fans of the series.—Joy Fleishhacker, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs

School Library Journal

2017-08-02
The Applewhites take their untraditional, ramshackle educational show on the road. In this third in the Applewhites saga, Jake Semple, cured of his rebel ways at their home-school ranch called Wit's End, remains with the Applewhites. The entire brood embarks on a cross-country competition to prove their brand of experiential, self-driven learning is the best. If they win, there's both money and reality TV fame to be had. E.D. and Jake's first kiss hasn't quite gone as expected, so when trouble arrives in the form of a gorgeous bad-girl named Melody Aiko Bernstein, Jake is struck dumb and E.D. is simmeringly jealous. Jake's and E.D.'s thoughts are revealed in alternating, third-person-limited chapters, while the rest of the quirky cast play out their roles in the background. The Art Bus goes from assigned stop to assigned stop per the competition's directive, amid myriad mishaps such as wayward crushes, stolen cars, embarrassing theater performances, minimakeovers, and cockroach infestations. Through sarcastic wit and sweet charm by turns, Melody manipulates the Applewhites, begging the question of everyone's integrity. This road trip is long and, despite its jumble of events, often tedious. Jake and the Applewhites are white; diversity is mostly conveyed by naming convention, as with Melody's Japanese middle name and yoga teacher/family cook Govindaswami's Indian one. A humdrum adventure that muddily tries to convey the notion that all of life's students are also teachers. (Fiction. 8-13)

Kirkus Reviews