48. Along for the Ride: A Novel by Sarah Dessen

Dessen, Sarah. Along for the Ride: A Novel. Viking, 2009. ISBN 9780670011940.

Plot Summary
Auden is a talented and intellectually gifted girl, but somewhat of a loner. Her parents are divorced and she finds herself struggling especially with insomnia. Her mother is overbearing and judgemental. Auden decides to accept her stepmother, Heidi's, invitation to stay with her, her father, and baby half-sister, Thisbe, in the town of Colby. The summer at her father's beach house isn't as calm as Auden thinks it will be. Heidi is stressed out over her baby and Auden's father is too busy writing a novel to pay attention to his family. Frustrated, Auden wanders onto a beach frequented by other teens. There she meets a boy named Jake and they surprisingly end up kissing. Soon the small town kids are confronting her about the kiss. Auden already feels like an outsider and this makes everything even worse until she meets another outsider named Eli. Eli is also an insomniac. They end up hanging out together and helping each other deal with their pasts and look forward to their futures.

Critical Evaluation
The book is a truthful portrayal of young Auden's journey to find a place to belong and in the process learn to love. Parent's may be concerned about the underage drinking in the book, but in reality, teenagers drink and the book neither supports it nor condemns it. Fans of other Sarah Dessen novels like, Lock and Key and Just Listen, will enjoy Along for the Ride.

Reader's Annotation
Auden goes to live her father and stepmother the summer before college. She has many "first" experiences and learns to deal with her dysfunctional family.

About the Author
Sarah Dessen grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill, graduating with highest honors in Creative Writing. She is the author of several novels, including Someone Like You, Just Listen and Along for the Ride.

A motion picture based on her first two books, entitled How to Deal, was released in 2003. Her tenth novel,What Happened to Goodbye, will be published in May 2011. She lives in North Carolina.

Genre/ Subgenre
Contemporary Life/ Coming of Age, Romance

Curriculum Ties
Sociology

Booktalking Ideas
1) How does divorce change the lives of families?
2) Is divorce always a bad thing, or are there good things about it?
3) How does the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" pertain to the story?

Reading Level/Interest Age
Ages 14+

Challenge Issues
Underage drinking
Language

Challenge defense ideas
-Become familiar with the book and its content.
-Refer to the collection development policy of the library, see
http://sfpl.org/pdf/about/policies/collection-development-plan.pdf
-Refer to reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly available for viewing on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Along-Ride-Sarah-Dessen/dp/0670011940/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292215029&sr=1-1

Why Included in Titles Selected
Popular author with teenage girls