The Road to Ever After
By Moira Young
(215 pages, Children’s fiction, 2015)
Davy is an orphan in Brownvale, a truly awful town but the only place he’s ever been. Somehow he’s adopted by a stray dog eventually named George and as bad as things have been, everything gets worse from there. Davy needs to leave town and fast.
Fortunately for Davy, the extremely elderly Miss Elizabeth Flint, who has been living in the defunct town museum, has decided it’s time to go home and she needs a driver. Who cares if Davy is only 13 and has no idea how to drive any car, much less the ancient crank horseless carriage in Miss Flint’s garage? Certainly not Miss Flint, or George, either. And though Davy has his doubts, his need to move on is greater than his anxiety about driving.
So they set off, down the one road that leads out of town. There are numerous changes of vehicle and some very odd occurrences. For one thing, Miss Flint appears to be getting younger rather than older. Electricity acts up – or shorts out – in their presence. The road to Miss Flint’s childhood home is hard to find.
In some ways, this is a familiar story: an orphan, a dog, a crabby elderly person who (probably) has a good heart and just needs to meet the right, deserving youngster. In other ways this book takes you to completely unexpected places and asks some very big questions. I enjoyed the unexpected turns of the story and getting to know Davy, Miss Flint and George. They are good company for a road trip.
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Julia Miller
