Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
A 16-year-old chauffeurs her crabby employer from Chicago to Dallas. "Bauer begins with an intriguing premise, weaves in unusual settings and creates an offbeat narrator to relay them. But a supporting cast of stock characters and forced dialogue may disappoint readers of her previous novels," said PW. Ages 12-up. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
Bauer's novel about an earnest teenager who chauffeurs a crabby, wealthy woman has the underpinnings of a quirky Driving Miss Daisy, but the story quickly runs out of gas. Sixteen-year-old Jenna Boller has the world by the tail. She's just received her driver's license and she loves her job at Gladstone's Shoe Store. Even better, she's been tapped to drive Mrs. Madeline Gladstone, the imposing president of the shoe store chain, from Chicago to Dallas for an important shareholders meeting. During the road trip Jenna gets a chance to demonstrate her passion for shoe salesmanship at various Gladstone stores; she also learns of Elden Gladstone's plan to push his mother aside in favor of a major merger. While Jenna educates herself in the ways of big business and dealing with difficult people, she also ruminates about her alcoholic father, her ailing grandmother and her mom and sister waiting at home. She arrives back in Chicago both braver and wiser. As in Squashed, Bauer begins with an intriguing premise, weaves in unusual settings and scenarios and creates an offbeat first-person narrator to relay them. But a supporting cast of stock characters and forced dialogue may disappoint readers of her previous novels. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
Children's Literature
- Children's Literature
Jenna Boller, working part-time in high school as a salesman at one of the 176 stores of Gladstone's Shoes, is tapped to also be the personal driver for Mrs. Gladstone. After several weeks of taking her to and from the local store, Jenna is lured into driving her on a scouting expedition for several weeks in the summer, culminating in attendance at the board of directors annual meeting. Jenna revels in her freedom from home and its problems and in the spy mission she executes for Mrs. Gladstone. While Mrs. Gladstone inspects each store, Jenna poses as a customer, later reporting on the quality of both the service of the staff and the merchandise. Both of them are deeply concerned for the future of the business, fearing that the son, Elden Gladstone, is posturing to take over the company and sell the name to a competitor. As the two attempt to stop the shady business dealings, Jenna learns about trust, her own inner strength, and how to face her family concerns. Nominated for the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award 2000-2001. 1998, Scholastic, Ages 12 up, $16.99 and $4.99. Reviewer: Mary Sue Preissner—Children's Literature
Children's Literature
- Rebecca Joseph
Sixteen-year-old Jenna is a new driver with a talent for selling shoes. When Madeline Gladstone, the elderly owner of Gladstone Shoe Stores, hires Jenna to chauffeur her around the country, Jenna begins a summer-long adventure which includes trying to handle the unwelcome visits of her alcoholic father and trying to help Mrs. Gladstone save her company. Bauer has created a fascinating, believable cast of characters in this riveting novel.
VOYA
- Candace Deisley
Here is the book that has everything: good writing, humor, moral enlightenment, and above all, sole! Jenna works part-time at an old-fashioned store in Chicago-the kind that sells quality shoes and has someone helping customers find the right fit and form for the function. Having got her driver's license six months ago, Jenna is new on confidence. Now she has caught the eye of the elderly widow, Mrs. Gladstone, who with her husband founded the shoe store chain and built its reputation on selling a quality product with quality service. When Mrs. Gladstone is threatened by a takeover from her son, whose values are not the same as his parents', in hopes of thwarting his plans she decides to visit some of the stores in the chain, on her way to see her best salesman in Texas. She hires the inexperienced Jenna to drive her Cadillac, visit the stores, and spy on management. These experiences are at the same time laugh-out-loud funny and lessons in morality. When Jenna and Mrs. Gladstone get to Texas, Jenna meets Harry Bender, no. 1 salesman and twenty-year member of Alcoholics Anonymous. She bonds with Harry, wishing that her alcoholic father were more like him, or that Harry were her father. But their bond is shattered when Harry is killed by a drunken driver. On returning to Chicago, Mrs. Gladstone loses the takeover but maintains a lot of influence, and Jenna delivers her father, drunk and driving, to the police. This is a remarkable book, presenting lessons of respect for others, courtesy, and honesty gently but persistently. Its messages about values and self-esteem bring laughter and tears. A sure-fire hit! VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P S (Hard to imagine it being better written, Broad general YA appeal, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).
Children's Literature
Jenna Boller can sell shoes like a skilled physician serving the physical and mental needs of a waiting room full of people. In this wry, coming-into-her-own novel, a young woman discovers her own beauty and skills when she agrees to drive an aging shoe mogul on the last tour of stores before retirement. Even though she is faced with the difficulties of living with a loving but often absent alcoholic father and the awkwardness of being a tall late-bloomer, Jenna has a keen sense of observation and a great sense of humor. Readers will love going along for the ride in this insightful road-trip novel. 2000 (orig. 1998), Puffin, $4.99. Ages 10 up. Reviewer: Alexandria LaFaye
KLIATT
To quote KLIATT's Sept. 1998 review of the hardcover edition: Sixteen-year-old Jenna feels successful only when she's at work at her part-time job at Gladstone's Shoe Store. The rest of the time she feels "big, awkward, and lost." She's had a lousy year at school and on the basketball team and there are family problems—a divorced mother who works too hard, a more beautiful younger sister and especially an alcoholic father who drops in and out of her life and makes trouble. When the elderly but feisty president of the shoe store company hires Jenna to drive her from Chicago to Dallas, she's happy to get out of town. On the road with Mrs. Gladstone in her big white Cadillac, Jenna learns a lot about standing up for herself and for what's right, wisecracking all the way, while Mrs. Gladstone learns to stand up to the son who's trying to force her to retire. Jenna is a delight; she's direct, funny, and self-deprecating as she relates the events of her summer on the road. Her enthusiasm for selling shoes is charming, and she comes across as utterly believable. Readers will cheer her on as she gets up the nerve to help the ornery Mrs. Gladstone and confront her father at last. This will probably appeal more to female than to male readers, but both Jenna and the novel are real winners. Bauer, author of Squashed and other YA novels, has a knack for conveying serious messages in a humorous way. An ALA Notable Book, Best Book for YAs, and Quick Pick; winner of the 1998 LA Times Book Prize. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 1998, Penguin/Puffin, 202p, 18cm, 97-32198, $4.99. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick; May2000 (Vol. 34 No. 3)
School Library Journal
Gr 7 UpJenna Boller, 16, has had a lot of practice at being responsible. Her mother is a nurse who works the night shift, and her younger sister yearns for attention. Jenna's long-divorced, alcoholic father embarrassingly shows up whenever he gets an occasional urge to "make it up" to her. In addition, her wise and beloved grandmother is grappling with Alzheimer's disease. So the teen's mother reluctantly agrees to let her accept a summer job driving the elderly Madeline Gladstone, the crusty and demanding president of the shoe chain for which Jenna works, from Chicago to Texas. Jenna is surprised to learn that Mrs. Gladstone has problems, too: an aching hip as well as an aching heart. Her conniving son is maneuvering to take over the company and sell out for a huge short-term gain. Jenna comes to admire and love her boss and eagerly enters into an alliance of loyal employees to save the company. In making this valiant attempt, she finds herself truly transformed. Bauer's juxtapositions are invitingyouth and age, wealth and work-a-day struggle, big-city loneliness and big-state caring, practicing alcoholism and big-hearted sobriety, stockroom wisdom and boardroom chicanery. The author creates some fabulous and sometimes flamboyant characters, witty dialogue, and memorable scenes, thus making readers really care about the intricacies of matching shoes to people and finding the right focus for Jenna as she strives to meet tall goals. Bauer's best yet.Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Kirkus Reviews
A high-school student with a passion for selling shoes may be a hard sell to teenagers, but Bauer (Sticks, 1996, etc.) makes 16-year-old, too-tall Jenna Boller a convincing narrator in this story of love and loss in the shoe business. President and owner of shoe stores from Chicago to Texas, the elderly Mrs. Gladstone appoints Jenna, who works in one of the stores, her personal driver. As the Chicago skyline recedes, Jenna and her companion head for the Lone Star state and a stockholders' meeting, taking in shoe stores from Peoria to Little Rock, where Mrs. Gladstone uncovers not only a decline in the quality of shoes being sold, but her son's plot for a company takeover. Sharp dialogue and caustic commentary from Jenna mark the journey, which lags somewhere around Kansas; revitalizing the plot is the entrance of Harry Bender, world's greatest shoe salesman. Through him and others, Jenna learns much more than the rules of the road ("Never eat at a place called MOM'S, because it's a safe bet Mom's been dead for years") and business acumen. Jenna's alcoholic father hovers in the background, more plot manipulation than fully realized character, but his presence throws Jenna's new maturity into relief. It's an unlikely hero's journey, and Bauer's dry humor assures readers that all's well that ends wellif not in corporate takeovers, at least in the business of growing up. (Fiction. 12-15)
