As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins

Sep 22, 2010 Wendy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Darsa, Jack

Shelves: 2010-award-possibilities

While I didn't have the feeling of LOVE LOVE LOVE that I had with Criss Cross, this is a really good book; once again, Lynne Rae Perkins has done something that's not quite what everyone else is doing. (And people who complain that Criss Cross has no plot, even though they're wrong, will not have that problem with this book.) I think just about everyone will enjoy this, especially people who liked Holes, Crunch by Leslie Connor, or Shift by Jennifer Bradbury.

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Jan 28, 2011 Doug rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow. There are so many things I love about this book. There's careful prose like this:

Ry's grandfather, Lloyd, took his first cup of coffee out onto the screened porch, sat down on a glider, and waited in the dark for the birds to start chirping. Between him and the sun, there was a thin bit of earth and a thick wall of trees, still black with night. As he sipped, the first rays of the sun found tiny gaps to poke through. Tomorrow he would pour the pot of coffee into a thermos to bring out onto

...more Wow. There are so many things I love about this book. There's careful prose like this:

Ry's grandfather, Lloyd, took his first cup of coffee out onto the screened porch, sat down on a glider, and waited in the dark for the birds to start chirping. Between him and the sun, there was a thin bit of earth and a thick wall of trees, still black with night. As he sipped, the first rays of the sun found tiny gaps to poke through. Tomorrow he would pour the pot of coffee into a thermos to bring out onto the porch so he didn't have to go back inside.

and

A stray moonbeam found the way through a window and fell in a faint square on the faded carpet, leaving the darkness around it blacker and more velvety.

or, a bit more representatively, the novel's opening:

Wait a minute.

Was the -- had the train just moved?

Ry turned his head to look at it straight on, but it sat on the tracks, as still as the lumpy brown hill he was climbing. As still as the grass that baked in gentle swells as far as he could see and the air in the empty blue sky.

I love the novel's structure. It sets up expectations and then delivers something slightly different. (It made me think of the "There once was a farmer who took a young miss in back of the barn where he gave her a ... lecture" song, although it's nothing like as gimmicky or obvious.) I love that it repeatedly made me laugh out loud in delighted surprise, even if the delightful surprise was ratcheting the novel's tension to an almost uncomfortable degree. I love that I had absolutely no idea, even in the last handful of chapters, if this book sided with the "everything turns out basically ok," "okay with a dollop of tragedy," or "dude, major bummer!" camp. I love the authorial voice, and especially how it assumes the reader is smart and paying attention, and often leaves conclusions for the reader to draw.

Things I'm less sure about: Perkins is pretty deliberately playing with the elasticity of the reader's credibility, I think, and somewhere near the end I struggled to keep mine from snapping. And the more I think about it, the more I think the dénoument is tonally completely appropriate, that is, that it should be a little unsatisfying. But that unsatisfyingness is only satisfying in retrospect.

Regardless this gets 5 stars from me even if it blows my credibility to give anything 5 stars, and I strongly suspect I will purchase multiple copies of this novel in my lifetime because I'm going to want to lend it to people who will want to lend it to people, and so on. And I really won't mind.

Another hat-tip to Janet for the recommendation(less)

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Apr 17, 2013 Krista rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: caudill-2013

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Dec 04, 2012 Jen Castagno rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-420

ORAL PRESENTATION

This is a story about a boy named Ry. He was headed to summer camp and was on a train. He had been receiving letters from the camp for a while about remembering to bring certain things, so he had not opened the last one that they had sent. While on the train, he opens the letter and sees that camp was actually canceled this year. At the next train stop, he decides to get off for a minute so he could get cell reception to call home. He is gone too long and the train takes off, le...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Ed added it

Perkins, Lynne Rae. (2010). As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth. New York: HarperCollins/Greenwillow. 368 pp. ISBN 978-0-06-187090-3 (Hard Cover); $16.99.

Ry thinks he will search for bones in Montana but his camp is cancelled. He meets up with Del, however, and his trip back home to Wisconsin becomes a sailboat adventure in the Caribbean.

Perkins is a master at forcing characters (and readers) to come full circle. Ry thinks he is in control of his life, but really it is cell phones, tra...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Kate Shillabeer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Let us begin with an acknowledgement of the undeniable beauty of this book's cover. It's so original and perfectly suited its story and general themes.I have stroked it many a time. However, the cover is by no means the most impressive thing about this book.

Lynne Rae Perkins is an author i had never heard of until I came across a video on YouTube in which this, her newest novel, was mentioned. I searched for it online, knowing full well my local bookshops would not stock it, and tried to find so...more Let us begin with an acknowledgement of the undeniable beauty of this book's cover. It's so original and perfectly suited its story and general themes.I have stroked it many a time. However, the cover is by no means the most impressive thing about this book.

Lynne Rae Perkins is an author i had never heard of until I came across a video on YouTube in which this, her newest novel, was mentioned. I searched for it online, knowing full well my local bookshops would not stock it, and tried to find some sort of description beyond the one which is supplied on its goodreads page:

Train.

Car.

Plane.

Boat.

Feet.

He'll get there.

Won't he?

I was getting frustrated because all I wanted to do was know whether this would be a book I'd be likely to enjoy, but I was getting nowhere with my search. In the end, I gave that short description one more read, admired the cover again for a long moment and then decided that any book about being lost and achieving the impossible was definitely to my tastes.

Thank goodness I came to that conclusion.

As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth is a story of exactly what one would expect from such a title: something happens to someone which offsets them from their presumed course, instead leading them through a series of mad and beautiful events in a world they hadn't even realised was all around them.

Perkins has a real talent for creating a beautiful sense of setting and atmosphere, along with a knack for nurturing unique characters whilst still pushing the message that humans are all fundamentally the same with her somehow both wise and innocent look into the many lives of a singular person. She is a master of demonstrating that our experiences, no matter how different to another's, can guide us to some wonderful places in the very same absurd way.

She builds emotions with such conviction that they seem completely authentic even in the wild situations into which she weaves them. In fact, it is because of the sheer implausibility of some of the events, that As Easy had me believing one single mishap, the tiniest of choices, could throw me into an incredible adventure full of things I would never usually do or things I would never have done otherwise. This is because, when we think about it, it is always the case that one thing stems from another; one falling rock is often followed by a crash of hundreds more.

This is a book for those who love travel and people, or those who want to love travel and people but are too scared to. This is a book which teaches us how to discover and reminds us that, ultimately, the decision to be free is one only we, ourselves, can make.(less)

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Oct 11, 2012 Nathaniel Y. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: quarter-one-book-review, read-caudills

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Book Title: As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth

Author: Lynne Rae Perkins

# of pages: 352

Genre: Fiction

This is a story about a boy named Ry. Ry is on a train in Montana, his parents are sailing in the Carribean, and he gets off the train to make a phone call. He climbs up a hill to get better reception, but then realizes the train is moving again. He trys to get to the train but it's gone already. He sees a town in the distance and walks to it. There he meets a man named Del, who more or...more Book Title: As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth

Author: Lynne Rae Perkins

# of pages: 352

Genre: Fiction

This is a story about a boy named Ry. Ry is on a train in Montana, his parents are sailing in the Carribean, and he gets off the train to make a phone call. He climbs up a hill to get better reception, but then realizes the train is moving again. He trys to get to the train but it's gone already. He sees a town in the distance and walks to it. There he meets a man named Del, who more or less "adopts" him. Del wants to drive back (with Ry) to Ry's house in Wisconsin. When they get there, Ry's grandpa, who lives at Ry's house, is missing. Ry wants to tell his parents about his grandpa, but they lost their cell phone on an island in the Carribean. Del drives Ry to Florida, where he knows someone with a homemade plane, who flies them to San Juan. Then Ry and Del borrow a sailboat from a friend, and they float aroud trying to find his parents. They find them, but Ry's mom faints when she sees Ry. In the end, they all find Ry's grandpa and go home.

The character I would like to have as my friend is Del because he is very kind and helps without asking. An example from the book is, on page 289, "You're like, 'Howdy ma'am, do you have any broken appliances? Excuse me while I rewire your toaster quick-a-minute.' Zipzapzoop, blow on your fingers, walk into the sunset. 'Oh, you need a ride to the other side of the world? I was just going there.'" (This is Ry talking to Del.) Another reason I would like this character is because he is a very unique character. Another example from the book is "Delwyn is a man who likes to--how should I say it--he likes to rise to the occasion. Like driving you home all the way to Wisconsin [from Montana]." on page 95.

I really liked the part when Ry sees his parents on the boat and swims over to them because almost everything leads up to finding his parents. It was so relieving and joyful to see it happen, and also surprising when his mom faints when she sees him.

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Jun 26, 2012 Misty rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ry is off to summer camp. Wait, he's how old? (*cough* 16) But on the train he opens a letter from the camp that says camp is cancelled. He gets off the train to call home, but the train leaves without him. So he walks into town and Del takes him in and after a day of working at Del's tree cutting down business, Ry decides to let Del drive him across country to home. Wow. Ry, you're kind of an idiot. And even though Del is a nice guy, he has other reasons for driving Ry home which turn out to be...more Ry is off to summer camp. Wait, he's how old? (*cough* 16) But on the train he opens a letter from the camp that says camp is cancelled. He gets off the train to call home, but the train leaves without him. So he walks into town and Del takes him in and after a day of working at Del's tree cutting down business, Ry decides to let Del drive him across country to home. Wow. Ry, you're kind of an idiot. And even though Del is a nice guy, he has other reasons for driving Ry home which turn out to be his wife, What's her name.

Ry and his folks have bad luck after back luck, but Ry can't really grow because it's not bad choices he's making, not really, not in the sense of being a bad egg who needs reform...more like choices that turn out to be poor based on the circumstances. So it's all about circumstances and not about Ry at all. So then I have to ask myself who is this book even about, because it's not about Del either. Ry is extraodinarily under-developed as a character--he really falls flat. Del is the one who has personality, character, integrity, intelligence, a bevy of interesting friends, and a history you wish you knew.

I liked this book, but as there was no romance and nobody fell in love, it kinda didn't do it for me. The thing was, there was totally the possiblity of a great love story between Del and ...Whatever her name was that was barely touched on.

I suppose it wasn't touched on because that wasn't the point of the novel. But then I had to ask myself what the point was. ....*crickets--crickets*... Um...there wasn't one? But the poem Del writes to his wife inspires the title of the book--and it's about falling in love,or maybe being in love, and it's pretty much one of the sweetest poems ever.

Try as I might, I can't escape your gravity.
My orbit is eliptical.
I fling myself far and think I'm free.
Who am I kidding?
Invisible forces and visible ones come into play.
A stranger comes to town.
Someone goes on a trip.
Leaving and staying away
is as easy as falling off the face of the earth.
But who would want to anyway?

So, okay book, but...confused. Less plot, more a series of unconnected and/or unbelievable events.
(less)

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May 26, 2012 Collin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quirky. That's the first word that comes to mind. Quirky. Take Lemony Snicket, Wendelin Van Draanen, and a sprinkling of Jonathan Stroud (for the amusing author's interventions/footnotes), and you have As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth.

Basically, it asks how do you fall off the face of the Earth? And goes about answering that in the form of a story. About a young boy who misses his train ride, loses the use of his cellphone, and thus is severed from all connection to his family and gr...more

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Mar 05, 2012 M. rated it 4 of 5 stars

2013 Rebecca Caudill nominee. A very nice coming of age story and a very good adventure book in which the author has made the improbable seem absolutely reasonable and possibly even inevitable. Especially good for reluctant readers since the print is large, the language is relatively simple, and one adventure follows another.

Ry's train has mechanical trouble and gets stalled somewhere in Montana; Ry gets off to make a quick call to his grandfather (his parents are sailing in the Caribbean). The...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Barb Middleton rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic, ya

Ever have one of those days where everything seems to go wrong?

Meet Ry.

He’s had one of those days. And while this is a realistic fiction book, you have to suspend your belief in reality because the things that go wrong with Ry are unbelieveable in the book, As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, by Newbery medal winner, Lynn Rae Perkins.

So what goes wrong?

Ry gets off a stalled train to make a cellphone call when the train takes off leaving him stranded in the middle of Montana with no fo...more Ever have one of those days where everything seems to go wrong?

Meet Ry.

He’s had one of those days. And while this is a realistic fiction book, you have to suspend your belief in reality because the things that go wrong with Ry are unbelieveable in the book, As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, by Newbery medal winner, Lynn Rae Perkins.

So what goes wrong?

Ry gets off a stalled train to make a cellphone call when the train takes off leaving him stranded in the middle of Montana with no food or water. He hikes to a town and along the way loses a shoe, gets a bloody nose, and a black eye. He tries calling people with the phone but no one answers. His parents are on a trip and his grandpa is taking care of him.

In town, Ry meets a nice and stubborn man named Del who decides to help him by driving him to Wisconsin to find Grandpa. Ry calls Del the “ninja cowboy fix-it man” who can repair and build just about anything. Their adventures and castrophes continue like a steam engine on full power as they become friends on their unlikely road trip.

The character descriptions in this book are fantastic. The thoughts of Ry are funny and the prose beautiful:

Ry found himself looking at the tattos on Pete’s arms. There were two, one per arm.

A colorful dragon was entwined like a magnificent 2-D pet around one arm. The tip of its tail pointed at Pete’s shoulder. It breathed orange and yellow flames onto his wrist. On the other arm was a coiled snake and the words DON’T TREAD ON ME. Or was it – wait – there was a t missing. Whoever had done the tattoo had left out the second “t.” It would be an easy mistake to make, you might be doing one t and your mind would go on to the next letter. The words on the scroll said, DON’T READ ON ME. (p 54)

I thought the plot was messy and Lloyd’s story took away from the main story (even if it was written well – I love the description of Lloyd drinking coffee on the porch.) I also got exhausted by the descriptive prose. The author has so many beautiful sentences piled on top of each other that capture the essence of the passage it slows down the reading and the pacing. For a hyperactive person like myself , it was hard for me to stick with the story when reading the slow passages – I started to skim. I probably should have put the book down and picked it up rather than read it in two sittings. I might have enjoyed it more if I had savored it slowly. Or not. I might still have been impatient for the resolution.

The book has two near death experiences for Ry, but he is such an easy-going traveler and doesn’t panic that they aren’t presented in a frightening way. Also, the vocabulary is going to be high for a 5th grader. To wrap up, the characters are quirky and the descriptions are beautiful but the plot was unsatisfying for me in this book.
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Jan 16, 2012 Ms.P rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, young-adult, travel

I checked this out from the library a long time ago, and it had been sitting in my pile. For some reason, I was reluctant to start it. Something about it didn't really appeal to me. I finally got around to reading it, and I see that my gut instinct was right.

This is one of those coincidental stories with lots of action and travel all over the US and parts of the Caribbean. The main character is a boy who loses his cell phone and therefore, all contact with his parents (who happen to be sailing a...more

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May 27, 2011 khcpl teen scene rated it 4 of 5 stars

When Ry gets off the train during an unscheduled mechanical stop in hopes of getting better cell phone reception he thought he would have more time, but when the train pulls off without him leaving him in the middle of nowhere Montana he realizes he may be in over his head. Thus begins a journey of thousands of miles, and many many unforeseen circumstances.

I will start out by saying this is the perfect book for summer. Ry was supposed to go to archeology camp for the summer, but when the camp i...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Nate U. added it

As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth:

Searching for the Ones We Love

Have you ever gone great lengths to find someone you love? This is exactly what Ry and others do in As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, which is a fabulous realistic fiction novel by Lynne Rae Perkins. The book starts when the main character Ry is going off to camp. His parents are away on a trip, and his grandfather is watching his house in Wisconsin. While on the train to camp, Ry opens a letter saying that c...more As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth:

Searching for the Ones We Love

Have you ever gone great lengths to find someone you love? This is exactly what Ry and others do in As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, which is a fabulous realistic fiction novel by Lynne Rae Perkins. The book starts when the main character Ry is going off to camp. His parents are away on a trip, and his grandfather is watching his house in Wisconsin. While on the train to camp, Ry opens a letter saying that camp is canceled, so he hops off the train for a second while it takes a quick stop somewhere in Montana and climbs a nearby hill to obtain cell service, planning to call his grandfather. It takes longer than expected, and the train ends up departing without Ry. In a panic, he rushes down the tracks and soon comes to a town where he finds shelter with a nice but eccentric man named Del. Ry calls home and his grandfather does not pick up or call back for several days, so Del agrees to drive him to Wisconsin to see what is going on. An important theme in As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth is that people will look for and are naturally attracted to the ones they love because the dogs search for Lloyd, Del keeps going back to Yulia, and Ry decides to go look for his parents in the Caribbean.

The theme that people will look for and are naturally attracted to the ones they love is especially evident in this book because the dogs search for Lloyd. While Ry is on is way to camp, his grandpa Lloyd falls in a sinkhole while walking Ry's dogs. He hits his head and forgets who he is, and the dogs get lost in the forest. The dogs realize he is injured and try to get help, but they are sidetracked by a scent. They continue to search for him, as they don't know a nice woman named Betty is helping him. The dogs are so faithful as they search for him. The dogs are depicted in cartoons searching for him, and they are shown on many pages searching far and wide for Lloyd. In deduction, I can tell that even though they aren't humans, they love Lloyd and that is why they are searching far and wide for him. Dogs are interesting creatures in the way that they show human-like traits, and these dogs do an amazing job of depicting how beings are strongly connected to the ones they love, and will search for them no matter what.

In As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, the theme that people will always search for the ones they love and that they are naturally attracted to them is shown by the fact that Del keeps coming back to Yulia. It's not especially clear in the story what their exact relationship is, but you know that they were lovers at some point. They are clearly “broken up”, but Del keeps seeing Yulia. Wherever Yulia moves, Del always seems to come back to her. A great example of this is the poem that Del writes: “I fling myself far and I think I'm free. Who am I kidding? Invisible forces, and visible ones, come into play: a stranger comes to town, someone goes on a trip. Leaving and staying away is as easy as falling off the face of the Earth.” (pg. 308) This quote is a great example of how humans are just attracted to the ones they love because Del describes how he tries to separate himself from Yulia, but in the end he comes back to her. To conclude, the fact that Del comes back to Yulia time after time illustrates the theme that people will search for and are naturally attracted to the ones they love.

An important theme in As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth is that people will look for and are attracted to the ones they love because Ry goes to look for his parents in the Caribbean. When he arrives in Waupatoneka (his hometown) and finds his grandfather missing, he decides to go and search for his parents who are on a trip in the Caribbean. This quote illustrates his decision: “And so, in ten sentences or less (don't count, it's an expression), in the wink of an eye, from zero to sixty, Ry went from 'Yeah, right,' to throwing some clothes in a backpack and grabbing the money from his secret place. .” (pg. 172) I can tell from this quote that Ry didn't hesitate to go look for his parents because he loves them. If it was anyone else, he wouldn't have gone. But because he loves his parents and is just naturally attracted to them, he made the decision to travel all the way to the Caribbean to find them. In conclusion, Ry's decision to go look for his parents illustrates the theme that people will look for and are attracted to the ones you love because this is exactly what he did with his parents.

An important theme in As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth is that people will look for and are naturally attracted to the ones they love because the dogs search for Lloyd, Del keeps going back to Yulia, and Ry decides to go look for his parents in the Caribbean. To rate, I would give this book a four because I really liked it, but it was nothing incredibly amazing. I can connect to this book because I once became lost in Costco. I was young, and I didn't know what to do. I frantically ran around the store for twenty minutes, until they called me to the front desk where my mom was waiting. I was scared out of my mind because I thought I would lose my mom forever. In the book, Ry isn't in danger of losing his parents, but he was so scared that he made things seem worse than they really were, just as I did when I was lost in the store. In reading this book, I learned that we all make drastic decisions sometimes and that sometimes these will lead to a happy ending, Ry made so many nonsensical decisions in this book, but we all make these especially when fear is pressuring us into them. To conclude, As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth is an out of the ordinary book and was a worthwhile read.(less)

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Feb 13, 2011 Karen Ball rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think this is my favorite LRP book ever! Ry's summer vacation was supposed to be a train trip across the country to camp, while Mom and Dad sailed off to the Caribbean to "revitalize their marriage" and Grandpa Lloyd stayed home to take care of the house and the dogs. Except that nothing -- and I mean nothing-- goes the way it should. The train stops in the middle of nowhere to fix something, and Ry gets off to climb a nearby hill to find some cell reception and call Grandpa because he finally...more

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Jan 06, 2011 Jeffrey rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned, fiction, young-adult, read-in-2011

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Dec 29, 2010 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars

15-year-old Ry suffers (or is that "endures"?, or is that "enjoys"?) an astonishing, off-the-wall summer, a relentless barrage of calamities and adventures that starts - only just starts - when he disembarks from a passenger train en route from Wisconsin to a summer camp somewhere west of Montana (where he disembarks, in the middle of nowhere, to try to find some cell phone reception, because he has just, belatedly, read a letter informing him the camp has been canceled...) and the train takes o...more

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Oct 11, 2010 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, life, light, ya

This is a fun book, in the best sense of the word. Unexpected adventure based on ridiculous happenstance and coincidences piled higher and higher, colorful characters, a light-hearted yet lyrical and effective narrator, and underneath it all a bit of wisdom. I really liked it.

The adventure starts when teenager Ry, on his way across the country to the camp where he is to be a counselor for the summer, opens a neglected letter to find the camp has been cancelled. Within minutes, his train stops in...more This is a fun book, in the best sense of the word. Unexpected adventure based on ridiculous happenstance and coincidences piled higher and higher, colorful characters, a light-hearted yet lyrical and effective narrator, and underneath it all a bit of wisdom. I really liked it.

The adventure starts when teenager Ry, on his way across the country to the camp where he is to be a counselor for the summer, opens a neglected letter to find the camp has been cancelled. Within minutes, his train stops in the middle of empty Montana for a mechanical issue, so he decides to sieze the moment to climb a nearby hill in search of cell phone service. And gets stranded as the train continues without him. Unbeknownst to Ry, his parents' cell phone has been stolen while they wander the Carribean in a sail boat, getting blown off course by a storm and delayed by mechanical issues, and his grandfather has no idea where he is or what he's doing due to short-term memory loss after suffering a concussion while house-sitting the dogs at the family's new house. Luckily, Ry wanders across the right stranger, who helps him undertake a quest to first find his way home then locate his missing family.

Some bits I especially liked:

Ry looked at his feet and legs in one of those little shoe mirrors that sat on the floor. The shoes were a metaphor for the decline of western civilization: crappy and glitzy and barely useful, but pretty comfortable. This is the narrator's opinion. Ry didn't think that thought specifically, but he felt as dispirited as if he had.

-----

"So, do you really have errands between Montana and Wisconsin?" he asked Del. Because looking around, he couldn't think what anyone would do here. No offense to North Dakota, but it was pretty subtle so far. There were a lot of green fields, with ponds and waterfowl, sometimes a bright yellow field. There were wide-open spaces and a lonely kind of green monotonous peacefulness that he knew his mother would really get off on. If she could go for a hike with the dogs, and if she coul find a good cup of coffee. But he was still young and preferred some stimulation. Other human beings, for example. Other young human beings. Maybe groups of them, though even one or two would be a start.

"Not errands, exactly," said Del. "Just people I like to visit when I can."

"Where do they live?" asked Ry.

"I have a couple of friends in St. Paul," said Del. "And a friend down in San Juan that I might drop in on."

"San Juan?" said Ry. "In Puerto Rico? I wouldn't call that 'on the way.'"

"Just depends on how you look at it," said Del. "Once you leave home, anything can be on the way."

-----

Ry thought he could hear the sound of the surf and sat up to find out whether he could see the ocean. The sound turned out to be coming from a blowtorch. Everett, in a Hawaiian shirt, his skinny legs, and flip-flops, was weeding his patio. With some kind of blowtorch-flamethrower device.

-----

The sea was magnificent. But then there was the deepness and the vastness of it, and the itsy-bitsyness of their boat. It wasn't seasickness Ry felt. This was more akin to panic. He had an intense longing to be on shore, any shore. He would like to be moving from the shore toward the center of a substantial continent. Just think of it like an Imax movie, he said to himself. An Imax movie times four or five or six, a screen in every direction. It didn't help.(less)

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Sep 24, 2010 Eva Mitnick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

15-year-old Ry is on a train heading to summer camp. The train stops in the middle of Nowhere, Montana for no apparent reason. Ry gets off to stretch his legs and try for better cell phone reception, leaving his backpack on the train. Train leaves. Oops!

This book could be called Trains, Planes, and Automobiles (and Small Boats), because these are the various transportation methods Ry uses to try to get home again. Like all great road stories, this isn't about home itself but about the journey to...more 15-year-old Ry is on a train heading to summer camp. The train stops in the middle of Nowhere, Montana for no apparent reason. Ry gets off to stretch his legs and try for better cell phone reception, leaving his backpack on the train. Train leaves. Oops!

This book could be called Trains, Planes, and Automobiles (and Small Boats), because these are the various transportation methods Ry uses to try to get home again. Like all great road stories, this isn't about home itself but about the journey to get there. After all, when Ry finally does reach home (a brand-new home, to which his family has just moved), he discovers that no one is there, and so he must set off on yet another journey to round up some family members. No, this story is about being away from home, and the folks you meet and the things you see and learn while out in the big world.

Just about every character in this book is more or less lost and looking for home (or someone to call home). Ry's grandpa is having his own bewildering adventure, caused by a nasty bump on the head he incurred while walking Ry's dogs. The dogs, meanwhile, go home to find help - but then remember that they actually used to live in a different place, so they set off for their old home, hoping to find their humans there. Naturally, they're soon lost themselves, and their story is told comic-book style. Ry's parents are having some misadventures in the Caribbean, where their lack of set itinerary means that Ry can't reach them by cell phone. And even Del, the mellow, stubborn fix-it man and jack-of-all-trades with whom Ry travels, is a bit lost, though his heart's compass keeps pointing toward a certain woman on a certain small island.

What have we got between all these stories of lost souls who can't quite seem to connect with each other? There are strange characters (Carl, the half-blind man with numb legs who loves to drive stolen cars), hair-raising adventure (the episode involving Carl being a good example, but if you need another, try the duct-taped homemade airplane or the sinking sailboat), romance (Del and his gal), two fabulous dogs, and a narrative style rich with humor and fresh with quirk.

In short, this was one hugely entertaining read from start to finish. It's one of my faves of the year so far, breezy but also full of intriguing ideas about our relationships with people and places. That this is the experience of a lifetime for Ry is unmistakeable. That he'll always savor it, but be more than ready to move on and experience more of life is certain as well.

Highly recommended for ages 12 to 16.
(less)

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Sep 04, 2010 Pam rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s, fiction

The Newbery Group has been referencing this book for a couple of months now, so I thought I should read it. Since it is a road trip book about a teenage boy I was thinking it would have some Kerouac inspiration/feel to it. To the author's credit, she does know how to create characters that are warm, interesting, and provide depth to make them seem realistic. I wish the same could be said of her plot.
The story as one reviewer described it seems like a Rube Goldberg machine and unfortunately it i...more

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Aug 12, 2010 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, favey-faves, coming-of-age, library-book, contemporary

Part of Adventures in Reading post on Bewitched Bookworms.
I read five books. In five days. This was one of them. =)

http://www.bewitchedbookworms.com/201...

As Ry stood and watched the train pull off into the distance leaving him in the middle of nowhere, he pondered how he could have possibly gotten there. How had things gone wrong? Little did he know that being left behind by a train was merely the beginning of an incredible summer odyssey.

I adore, *heart*, admire, and emphatically love this no...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: newbery-buzz-2011, young-adult

It took me three tries to get into Criss Cross, and I wasn't sure I would ever love this author. It took me about four seconds to get into this book, and I loved it! Quirky, funny, and tender. Ry's way of dealing with his ever-increasingly desperate situation is cute and sweet, while at the same time being totally believable. Love the other characters that weave in and out of the story as well.

Mostly I love the narrator's voice and style. SO much fun.

This book is a series of unfortunate events...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Cornmaven rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: high-school, middle-school, ms-hs

I loved this book. It's a sort of road trip/journey combined with a look at coincidence and letting things happen as they happen. The narrator injects herself into the story, and you feel as if the characters are watching themselves move through the story just as you are watching them.

There's action but it just flows along like a river and you are caught up in it. Three improbably stories going on at the same time, plus a side story about dogs who are also included in the other stories. I think...more

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Jun 26, 2010 Caren rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all audiences---fun and squeaky clean

Shelves: ya

Oh my goodness, I do like this author! The question is, how can I describe this book and do it justice? The plot could be likened to a Rube Goldberg machine, with one thing leading to another until it is all flowing along, quite out-of-control. Or perhaps it brings to mind the saying that life is what happens while you are making other plans. Ry, the teenage protagonist is on a train in Montana, on his way to summer camp, when the train stops in the middle of nowhere while experiencing a problem...more

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Jun 16, 2010 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: sailors, non-sailors, teens, adults who appreciate good literature no matter how it's labeled

Lynn Rae Perkins is becoming one of my favorite authors, right up there with Sharon Creech and Patricia MacLachlan. This story follows the escapades of Ry, a teenage guy whose life this particular summer includes a series of unlikely but-what-if's, all of which befall him and his family. Thus, Ry's summer camp having been cancelled, he throws his lot in with Del, a taciturn, self-admittedly stubborn, chronic let-me-help-you-out-er, and they make their way East (and eventually to the Caribbean) i...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Sandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: juvenile-fiction, road-trip, teen

I have a strange relationship with this book. I adore Lynne Rae Perkins and her prose is soothing and lovely, interspersed with a few funny comments from the omniscient narrator. This is a gentle read, full of a lot of internal thoughts and observations and character development rather than action. I kind of like that. I would pick up the book and read 100 pages before putting it down, becoming happily absorbed in Ry's bizarre adventure and the interesting characters that he meets. But then, for...more

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Jun 08, 2010 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Right off the bat, let me say that I liked this novel so much better than Criss Cross, Perkins's Newbery Medal winning effort. It succeeds where Criss Cross failed, namely in conveying the serendipitous nature of self-discovery, largely through the power of adventure story. The main character, a likable teenager named Ry, has incredibly bad luck from page one, when he steps off a train trying to find cell reception and ends up stranded in the middle of Montana. He has just read a letter from the...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Sherrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ry is 15 years old and on a train that will take him from his home in Wisconson to a summer camp out West. He finally gets around to reading his mail on the train, only to discover that the summer camp has closed. At a brief stop for minor repairs, he exits the train looking for better cell phone reception...and the train leaves without him. Thus begins a road trip/quest story as Ry seeks (first) to get home and eventually (after he discovers that things at home are clearly amiss) to the Carribe...more

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Apr 09, 2011 Josiah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Lynne Rae Perkins is one of the most amazing writers whose work I've ever known. Her ability to turn the ordinary pieces of everyday life—such as a leaf falling from a high tree brach to whatever bed of shrubbery on which it may ultimately land, or each section of asphalt passing beneath the hungry wheels of a car, lit up in unrecognized importance to the car's passengers for just that one brief moment in time—is utterly magnificent. Her writing is cut from the same noble cloth as that of Dicke...more Lynne Rae Perkins is one of the most amazing writers whose work I've ever known. Her ability to turn the ordinary pieces of everyday life—such as a leaf falling from a high tree brach to whatever bed of shrubbery on which it may ultimately land, or each section of asphalt passing beneath the hungry wheels of a car, lit up in unrecognized importance to the car's passengers for just that one brief moment in time—is utterly magnificent. Her writing is cut from the same noble cloth as that of Dickens, livening even the ostensibly mundane elements surrounding the story to illustrate that it's all important, that nothing happening on this earth is completely unattached from everything else that has ever transpired on our common sphere of land. Significance is truly to be found under every single rock.

As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth is one of the strangest stories that I have ever read. It starts out seemingly right in the middle of the narrative, with little initial explanation as to why things are as they are and how the characters find themselves at the particular crossroads at which we first meet them. These vital bits of info are sprinkled throughout the book's three hundred fifty-three pages, as sort of an incentive to the tenacious reader who is willing to forge ahead despite not immediately having all of the pieces to the bigger puzzle.

The story is eminently readable for even a non-advanced reader, but I believe that its greatest rewards may be for deep thinkers. References abound to intellectual subject matter and frequently depend on a strong base of cultural and academic knowledge for full comprehension, appealing to the sophisticated tastes of youthful literates with its quick wit and fast-paced thought. The sentences snap and pop with the unmistakable whir of high intelligence as Lynne Rae Perkins takes the initiative to not write down to her young-adult audience in the least, rather letting them come along for the ride and trusting them to be able to maintain requisite cruising speed.

There's not a whole lot about the basic plot that needs to be explained. A teenager named Ry, on his way to camp via train, ends up being left behind out in the middle of nowhere when he debarks the train for a moment in order to get cell phone reception, and the vehicle departs before he can make it back on board. Ry then begins his long, improbable journey back home, coming across a cast of characters whose virtues and foibles in turn help and hurt the success of his quest to make it back to his family. However, there's more in the offing than just Ry's making it home, as he soon discovers. His grandfather may be in real trouble, and the only way to find out for sure if everything is all right is for Ry to complete his own ever-lengthening odyssey, and see what turns up at the end of the proverbial rainbow.

Lynne Rae Perkins is an incredible writer, never failing to produce page after page of linguistic brilliance whenever she creates a new novel for young adults. For the hypnotizing power of her words alone, any book that she writes is always worth the read. Some people may find themselves scratching their head in puzzlement after going through As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, but it will be hard to deny, at the very least, that the writing was not superb. It's a uniquely stimulating experience that I would recommend to any reader, and I would give the book two and a half stars in acknowledgement of its unsurpassed writing quality.(less)

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Jan 09, 2013 J. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

The writing is well done and polished but I couldn't get over the choices Ryan was making. He's old enough\mature enough for his parents to send him a camp across the country by himself on a train but he's not smart enough to just go to the police station and ask for assistance getting home? I would have enjoyed the story and the adventures except that it all rested on that premise. I started skimming after his second day in Montana so maybe I missed something vital but I read the author's note...more

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