“Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” — John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

A lot of people give Jack Kerouac credit for the road trip novel — he wrote his well-known travelogues when America was building highways to allow for cross-country travel. And without doubt, On the Road is one of those books that is a classic (I would go as far as to call it a classic, not just a cult classic). But Kerouac’s novel is nothing compared to Steinbeck’s road trip book, Travels with Charley. My dog-earned, spine-bent copy of Steinbeck’s work is marked up like crazy with great lines and observations that happen when one takes a cross country journey — he cuts to the heart of people and places in a way that sort of defines the purpose of a road trip all together.

The idea of the road trip is all about the idea of change and growth, of observation and discovery. More than that, it’s about freedom, which is why I think it’s such a huge trend in the YA world. It’s a trend I dig quite a bit as a road trip junkie myself.

Here’s a list of road trip books that have been published in the last couple of years, along with a handful of titles to be published in 2012 that incorporate a road trip as a key element to the story. I’m certainly not going to hit them all, and they’re in no particular order, though I’ve noted the publication dates on the titles not out yet. You’ll see reviews of a few of these in the next few weeks, too.

If you can think of other recent titles, leave a comment. I’d be particularly interested in road trip novels that don’t take place in the States or more than feature male main characters. And I urge anyone who loves a good road trip novel to read Steinbeck’s book if you haven’t, and I think without doubt, both it and Kerouac’s books have teen appeal — I know I read them both for fun when I was in high school. 

All descriptions come from WorldCat.

Take Me There by Carolee Dean: After violating his parole, seventeen-year-old, semi-literate Dylan Dawson drives from California to Texas to try to see his father on death row in an attempt to figure out how his own life has gone so terribly awry.

Crash Into Me by Albert Borris: Four suicidal teenagers go on a “celebrity suicide road trip,” visiting the graves of famous people who have killed themselves, with the intention of ending their lives in Death Valley, California.

Saving June by Hannah Harrington: After her sister’s suicide, Harper Scott takes off for California with her best friend Laney to scatter her sister’s ashes in the Pacific Ocean.

In Honor by Jessi Kirby (May 8, 2012): Three days after she learns that her brother Finn died serving in Iraq, Honor receives a letter from him asking her to drive his car from Texas to California for a concert, and when his estranged best friend shows up suddenly and offers to accompany her, they set off on a road trip that reveals much about all three of them.

Catch & Release by Blythe Woolston: Eighteen-year-old Polly and impulsive, seventeen-year-old Odd survive an deadly outbreak of flesh-eating bacteria, but resulting wounds have destroyed their plans for the future and with little but their unlikely friendship and a shared affection for trout fishing, they set out on a road trip through the West.

The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg: A novel based on the true story of seventeen-year-old Clara Estby’s walk across America with her mother Helga in 1896, to win a ten thousand dollar prize and save their home from foreclosure.

Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown (July 10, 2012): Seventeen-year-old Kendra, living in the shadow of her brother’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, takes a life-changing road trip with him.

Don’t Stop Now by Julie Halpern: Recent high school graduates Lil and Josh leave Illinois for Oregon seeking Lil’s sort-of friend Penny, who faked her own kidnapping to escape problems at home and an abusive boyfriend, but Lil also wants to find out if she and Josh are meant to be more than friends.

Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Antony John: Sixteen-year-old Luke Dorsey is sent on a cross-country tour to promote his bestselling spiritual self-help guide accompanied by his agnostic older brother and former girlfriend Fran, from whom he learns some things about salvation.

Pretty Bad Things by CJ Skuse: When they were six years old, twins Beau and Paisley were famous for surviving on their own after their mother died of a drug overdose, and now, at sixteen, they escape from their abusive grandmother to look for their father, who is out of prison and, unbeknownst to them, has been writing them letters since he was put away.

Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith: When her boyfriend Zan leaves high school in Utah a year early to attend Pitzer College, a broken-hearted Joy and Zan’s best friend Noah take off on a road trip to California seeking “closure.”

Kiss the Morning Star by Elissa Janine Hoole (April 1, 2012): The summer after high school graduation and one year after her mother’s tragic death, Anna and her long-time best friend Kat set out on a road trip across the country, armed with camping supplies and a copy of Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, determined to be open to anything that comes their way.

 
Finding Somewhere by Joseph Monninger: Determined to set an old horse free, sixteen-year-old Hattie and eighteen-year-old Delores head west in search of range land on a road trip that takes unexpected turns as the girls get their own taste of freedom and confront the reasons they left home.

Reunited by Hilary Weisman Graham (June 12, 2012): Alice, Summer, and Tiernan were best friends who broke up at the same time as their favorite band, but four years later, just before they are preparing to go off to college, the girls reluctantly come back together, each with her own motives, for a road trip from Massachusetts to Austin, Texas, for the band’s one-time-only reunion concert.

Guyaholic by Carolyn Mackler: Ever since V’s mom dumped her with her grandparents, she’s bounced from guy to guy. That is, until a fateful hockey puck lands her in the lap of Sam Almond, who is different from the start. But V makes an irreversible mistake at her graduation party and risks losing Sam forever, spurring her on a cross country road trip to visit her mom in hopes of putting two thousand miles between herself, Sam, and the wreckage of that night.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green: Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray: In an attempt to find a cure after being diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s (aka mad cow) disease, Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen-year-old boy, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital.

Nobody but Us by Kristin Halbrook (January 2013): Two teenagers who, in search of a better life, run away to Vegas, but realize they can’t run fast enough when they end up wanted by the police, out of money, and out of options, pitched as a YA Bonnie and Clyde. 

I think it’d be neat if someone manipulated a Google Map and actually included all of the trips through these books on it. That was my original plan in writing this, but I haven’t read enough of the titles/remember all of the journeys. But it’s there for the taking if someone wants to give that project a go.