| Texas author Liz Garton Scanlon has a way with words. She has a way of framing a concept into delightful couplets that intrigue the mind with a fresh way of thinking about things and enchant the ear with the sound of language. Her books cover a wide range of ideas from appreciating wonder in the Caldecott honor book All the World, to coping with change in The Good Pie Party, to celebrating the joy of the arts and creativity in Think Big. With the publication of In the Canyon, Liz invites readers on a nonfiction exploration of the Grand Canyon. |
The Great Good Summer

Meet Ivy Green, of Loomer Texas. Her life has turned upside down. Mama has run off to Florida with Hallelujah Dave and she is left at home, trying to learn exactly where her mama is and why she left home. Searching for answers, she boards a Greyhound Bus with her friend Paul to find her mother and answers to her questions. Note: I think this was the year of the Great Greyhound bus odyssey. Young tweens and teens seek for answers and come to terms with loss while traveling via transit coach. Mary Iris Malone heads for Ohio in Mosquitoland, Eva Roth travels to California in Kissing in America, and now Ivy sets her sights on Florida. Cue Simon & Garfunkel's Look for American.
Road Trip! Get on the bus with Ivy and Paul as she seeks for answers. “My problem is, I’ve got a lot of voices inside,” I say. "They interrupt one another all the time.”
Ivy's truths about science, religion, and belief
- Everyone is searching for meaning and reasons why
- Religion isn't a cure-all
- Everyone wants to believe in something
- Science doesn't have all the answers
- It's all about believing
- Sometimes stereotypes are wrong
- How much you care trumps how much you know
- Everyone has their own belief system
- Hold onto what you really know