Reviews of As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins

As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth

by Lynne Rae Perkins

As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins X
As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins
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  • First Published:
    May 2010, 368 pages

    Paperback:
    Apr 2012, 352 pages

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Book Reviewed by:
Tamara Ellis Smith
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About this Book

Book Summary

Train.

Car.

Plane.

Boat.

Feet.

He'll get there.

Won't he?

Wait

Wait a minute.

Was the - had the train just moved?

Ry turned his head to look at it straight on, but it sat on the tracks, as still as the lumpy brown hill he was climbing. As still as the grass that baked in gentle swells as far as he could see and the air in the empty blue sky.

He must have imagined it. Nothing had moved. Everything was the same.

But there it was again. Was it because he blinked? Maybe it was the water in his eyes; it had wobbled up his vision.

He picked out a post alongside the tracks, directly below the line where the logo on the train changed from red to blue. As he watched, the red and the blue shifted almost imperceptibly to the right above the post. Then perceptibly. The train was moving.

"Wait," Ry said aloud.

Because it wasn't supposed to move yet. The conductor had said - the conductor had said forty minutes. Ry was supposed to be on the train. After a full second of hesitation, he went scrambling down the steep rubbled face of the hill. ...

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Yes. Ry gets there. By train, car, plane, boat and feet. But also, truly, he gets there by head, heart, and whole body - by connecting with Del, himself and ultimately the world around him...continued

Full Review (610 words).

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(Reviewed by Tamara Ellis Smith).

Media Reviews

The New York Times - Monica Edinger
Some may scoff at the improbability of the events that unfold in this novel, not to mention, for Ry, several near misses with death. But the reader who is willing to suspend disbelief and, like Del, is ready to defy any suggestion of impossibility, will be rewarded with a rich, eventful and extremely entertaining summer road trip.

Booklist
Starred Review. Relentlessly entertaining… an absolute delight.

Horn Book
Starred Review. Wherever Perkins's warm, funny, wise narrative goes is where a reader wants to be.

Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review. A long, immensely enjoyable, curiously comforting ramble through an absurd-but-benign world. Ages 12+

Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A humorous additional narrative, 'Dogs,' told in comic strip format, mimics Del's and Ry's story, and continues Perkins's experimentation with form. Ages 12-up.

School Library Journal
This novel is not going to be every teen boy's cup of tea, but its charms are undeniable.

Reader Reviews

TotsMcGots

SUCKED
The plot was slow and the book was terrible! So uneventfull!

Write your own review!

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Beyond the Book

The Ramphos

While journeying to find his parents, Ry took a train, a car, a plane and a boat. Four separate vehicles. But what if he could have simply taken one? What if there were such a vehicle? One that could operate on land, water and in the air?

There is! Check out the Ramphos!

Ramphos


While it looks just like something slightly crazy Del would have patch-worked together and you would skeptically (and warily) wonder if it would crash into a million pieces the minute you started the engine, the Ramphos, made in Italy, is an ingenious, amphibious flying vehicle. It looks like a hang-glider attached to a boat with retractable wheels, and can take off and land on land or water. It uses standard car gasoline or ...

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