Rules of the Road

Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer

There is little in this book that you would expect to find in a teen novel.  There is no romance, no conflict between friends and since it is summer, high school doesn’t really even factor in.  What you do have, is a coming of age book where a teenage girl learns the true value of herself.

Jenna has no boyfriend, a sister who looks like a model, an incredibly hard-working mother and an alcoholic father.  The best thing in her life is her job selling shoes and she is exceptionally good at it.  She catches the eye of the store owner, Mrs. Gladstone and her life is set on the path to change.  Mrs. Gladstone has an offer that Jenna can’t refuse. All Jenna has to do is agree to drive her to Texas and she’ll learn more about the shoe business, make a ton of money and maybe best of all, be far away from the drama her father creates.  The trip is transformational for Jenna (and yes, it includes a mini-makeover), but ultimately it’s really about her learning about the strength and abilities that she already has, which is a great message to send to teens.

Despite being set in fairly recent times (the book was published in 1998), Rules of the Road has an old-fashioned feel, which is heightened by some things that seem anachronistic, like how Jenna and her mother correspond via letter.  This may be off-putting to some readers.

One of the main themes of this book is dealing with an alcoholic.  It is handled well, with no pat resolution.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Jenna’s father lives with a girlfriend. Jenna and her friend Opal like boys.  Jenna’s grandmother has been married three-times, but after that she just stuck with dating.  Jenna dances with a boy.  Her mother does have a boyfriend by the end.
Profanity – “moron,”  “May God Almighty be merciful,” which doesn’t sound very curse-y to me, but everyone has a different tolerance for expressions of deity.  “Idiot,”  Another driver is making “filthy gestures,” “hell,” “jerks,” “blast,” “slimeball,” “cahoonas,” “bloody”
Death, Violence and Gore – Jenna pushes a bully up against a wall and tells him she’ll rip his kidney out if he calls her Ms. Moose again.  The girls’ mother joking threatens to kill them if they don’t clean off the dining room table.   Jenna watches a spider kill a fly.  Jenna’s grandfather advises that if you aren’t watching a knife, you can hack off your thumb (he was a butcher).  Jenna’s mother is concerned about her going on a road trip and Jenna teases her mother that she’s afraid of rest-stop serial killers.  Jenna’s father used to get beaten by his own father when he was a boy.  One salesman tells people that he’s giving prices so low his boss will hang him.  In anger Jenna’s father kicks a dent into the fridge.  A character is killed in a car accident.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Jenna inhales a small amount of helium to make the funny squeaky voice.  Helium has been in the news lately as a teen party trick turned deadly, especially when taken from the tank and not from a balloon.  Jenna’s father shows up at her workplace, drunk.  He claims he’s just on medication that makes him act funny.  He calls her frequently when he is drunk.  Mrs. Gladstone takes some sleeping pills to be able to sleep in the car.  At a restaurant, other diners are drinking Margaritas and Jenna remembers how exact her father is at mixing drinks.  Jenna’s dad would go out to buy cigarettes.  Mr. Bender rather cryptically advises that you shouldn’t punch a man who is chewing tobacco.  Mr. Bender is a recovered alcoholic.  There are multiple drunk driving incidents.
Frightening or Intense Things – Jenna’s parents are divorced and her father has been absent for much of her life.  Jenna was very close to her grandmother, but her grandmother now suffers from Alzheimer’s.  Jenna’s survival of her father’s alcoholism is a major theme in this book, and is handled in a way that most teens and tweens will be able to manage.  For those that have experienced something similar, Jenna’s experience will be valuable.