Big Rig

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. (Aug.)