CLEAN GETAWAY
How to Go on an Unplanned Road Trip with Your Grandma:
Grab a Suitcase: Prepacked from the big spring break trip that got CANCELLED.
Fasten Your Seatbelt: G’ma’s never conventional, so this trip won’t be either.
Use the Green Book: G’ma’s most treasured possession. It holds history, memories, and most important, the way home.
What Not to Bring:
A Cell Phone: Avoid contact with Dad at all costs. Even when G’ma starts acting stranger than usual.
Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the American South,
How to Go on an Unplanned Road Trip with Your Grandma:
Grab a Suitcase: Prepacked from the big spring break trip that got CANCELLED.
Fasten Your Seatbelt: G’ma’s never conventional, so this trip won’t be either.
Use the Green Book: G’ma’s most treasured possession. It holds history, memories, and most important, the way home.
What Not to Bring:
A Cell Phone: Avoid contact with Dad at all costs. Even when G’ma starts acting stranger than usual.
Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the American South, take a trip with this New York Times bestseller and an eleven-year-old boy who is about to discover that the world hasn’t always been a welcoming place for kids like him, and things aren’t always what they seem–his G’ma included.
- Crown BFYR
- Hardcover
- January 2020
- 240 Pages
- 9781984892973
Buy the Book
$16.99
About Nic Stone
Nic Stone is an Atlanta native and a Spelman College graduate. After working extensively in teen mentoring and living in Israel for several years, she returned to the United States to write full-time. Nic’s debut novel for young adults, Dear Martin, was a New York Times bestseller and a William C. Morris Award finalist. She is also the author of Odd One Out, a novel about discovering oneself and who it is okay to love, which was an NPR Best Book of the Year and a Rainbow Book List Top Ten selection.
Praise
“A road novel that serves in part as a primer on important scenes and themes of the civil-rights movement… [A] poignant caper.” —The Wall Street Journal
Discussion Questions
1. What is your initial impression of Scoob? Why do you feel this way? What is your initial impression of G’ma? Why?
2. Scoob says that the RV gives him “the willies.” (p. 9) Why does Scoob feel this way? He misses G’ma’s house. Why do we become attached to places? Is it really about the place?
3. Scoob is in trouble with his father. Why? What happened at school? What do you think Scoob’s father means when he says, “the punishment is harsher and the fallout is infinitely worse”? Who are “boys like you”? (pp. 13–17)
4. Who is Shenice? Who is Drake? What is epilepsy? What do you think about how Scoob responded to Bryce bullying Drake? (pp. 11–15)
5. Why was The Travelers’ Green Booka necessary brochure when G’ma and G’pop were young adults?
6. Why do you suppose G’ma is swapping the license plates on the RV? (pp. 43–44)
7. G’ma keeps calling Scoob “Jimmy.” Why? Who is Jimmy? What do you think is happening to G’ma? (pp. 82–83)
8. Scoob believes that G’ma is being less than truthful with him because she starts to whistle. How do you know if someone is being dishonest with you? What can you do about it?
9. G’ma is overwhelmed with guilt. Why does she think that being pulled over with G’pop was her fault? (pp. 135–136)
10. Chapter 15 details Scoob’s dream about being back at home with his dad. What do you think this dream means?
11. Why do you think Scoob’s mom is out of his and his father’s lives? Why do you think Scoob is not ready to reconnect with her? (p. 216)
12. What does Scoob find inside G’ma’s treasure chest? What do its contents inspire Scoob and his dad to do?