June 15, 2022
Eleven-year-old Hazel loves life on the road with her dad. Her mom died when she was an infant, and for the first four years of her life she lived with Dad's beloved best friends, Mazen and Serena, while her father grieved and got his drinking under control. But now Hazel and Dad drive all over the country, hauling all kinds of cargo, overnighting at truck stops, and sleeping in the cab of their truck, Leonardo, which Dad fitted with comfortable bunks and a starry ceiling. Dad home-schools Hazel on a wide variety of fascinating subjects, and a marble box holding Mom's ashes is always with them. Hazel worries that industry automation and Dad's talk of quitting the road will prevent her from achieving her dream of someday being a trucker, but she's working on a clever, secret plan. Hazel narrates her story at a pace that varies with their activities. There are hilarious moments, some mysticism, and heart-stopping adventures: Encounters with an abandoned baby, a kitten rescued from a plane crash, a teen runaway, and a school van caught in a flash flood highlight their compassion and bravery. Father and daughter learn to understand each other, and when Hazel's ingenious plan succeeds, a momentous decision is reached. Hazel is innocent, wise, trusting, loving, capable, creative--and a total delight; readers will root for her all the way. Hazel and Dad are White; Mazen and Serena are Black. An unusual modern picaresque romp with a lovely message. (Fiction. 9-13)
COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
July 1, 2022
Grades 4-7 Life on the open road is a joy to Hazel (aka Hazmat), who loves riding shotgun alongside her dad in their 18-wheeler, Leonardo. Eleven years old and motherless (though Mom's ashes always ride with them), Hazmat is on the verge of teendom, with all the joys and struggles it entails. Through a series of vignettes, readers get to know Hazmat's history and join her on adventures that include a plane crash, a runaway, an abandoned infant, a bus accident, a flood, and more. She and her dad prove ever helpful and heroic no matter the situation. Hazel chronicles all these happenings, hoping to create a TV series. But change is in the air because Dad wants to put down roots in one place and live a "normal" life. But why would they want that when they have such wonderfully unique friends and experiences? Hawes' breezy tale will capture readers' attention, piquing their interest through highway high jinks and keeping them wondering about where Hazmat's adventures will take them next. An original tweak on the road trip story.
COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
September 1, 2022
Gr 4-6-Hazel's mother died when she was a newborn, so it's been just her and Dad trucking on the road together. Hazel is homeschooled by her truck driver father (who also has a PhD in English Literature), and even though he keeps talking about getting a home and Hazel going to school one day, she wants to put off that future for as long as possible. To Hazel, the road is home, and she wants other people to understand that, too. As the plot progresses, Hazel and her father find themselves in one unbelievable situation after another-encountering a teenage runaway, rescuing a van of school children, and saving a cat from an airplane crash to name a few-and Hazel uses them all for her trucker script she wants to send to Hollywood executives. While Hawes has a unique premise with lots of potential, it can feel like readers are on a very long trucking trip with a lot of curves and one too many rest stops. Many of the things that happen to Hazel and her father could happen individually, but it seems highly improbable that so many things would happen to them in such a short span of time. And while readers might be able to understand that all of these events bring Hazel and her father closer together while teaching important life lessons, it becomes too much to suspend disbelief. VERDICT A fair purchase for libraries seeking books about father-daughter relationships or trucker life.-Kerri L. Williams
Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 31, 2022
Eleven-year-old Hazel Sampson—trucker handle Hazmat—narrates this action-packed novel about her long-haul adventures with her father, an English literature professor turned trucker. Following Hazel’s mother’s death a week after her birth, Hazel went to live with family friends Mazen and Serena until her dad “figured out how to stop drinking and start loving again.” Now, the two criss-cross the country in big rig Leonardo, a long-nose Peterbilt, listening to audiobooks, homeschooling from the road, and chatting with the ashes of Hazel’s mother. Though Hazel’s dad fears professional obsolescence in the face of driverless robo-trucks, Hazel aspires to the vocation—if she can find a way to extend the way of life she loves so dearly. As part of this effort, Hazel comes up with an idea to glamorize trucking through film. Through Hazel’s winning, practical voice, Hawes (The Language of Stars) sketches the close relationship between navigator daughter and driver father as well as the memorable cast they find on the road, including an abandoned baby, a teenage runaway who dreams of stardom, and a kitten who’s the sole survivor of a plane crash. The heroine charms completely, as does this portrait of life on the road. Hazel and her father present as white; Mazen and Serena are Black. Ages 8–12. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown.