See You Down the Road

by Kim Ablon Whitney

A fascinating glimpse into the lives of Irish Travelers in America, from a new voice in YA literature.

Welcome to Bridget’s Her family lives in a trailer, moving every so often; she’s engaged and her wedding is sooner than she’d like; and her parents want her to quit high school so she can help more with the family business. The problem is Bridget’s not sure the Traveler life is for her anymore. She feels guilty about pulling scams, and she’s definitely not sure she wants to get married, even though Patrick’s a good guy. But Bridget’s always been the good girl who does what she’s told, and there’s no way her parents will let her out of the wedding. And if she leaves the life, she’s out of the family for good.

Tautly written, with a riveting storyline and sympathetic characters coping with universal themes of family and social pressure, See You Down the Road will captivate readers to the very end.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Novels, Realistic Fiction

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 10, 2004

About the author

Kim moved back to her hometown of Newton, Mass. where she lives with her husband, two young sons, and greyhound. She is a graduate of Tufts University, and has an M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College. She is a member of the PEN New England Children’s Book Caucus and is the coordinator of the PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. A lifelong horse lover and rider, she is a nationally licensed judge and officiates at horse shows around the country. She’s also a passionate Boston sports fan, and an excerpt from her baseball-themed novel-in-progress will appear in the anthology FENWAY FICTION.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I want to rate this book, I might end up changing it. I probably never would have picked this book up if my friend didn't give me a copy and if we hadn't read it together.

I enjoyed the premise of the book, I had never read about travelers before. It was interesting to get a taste of what that life might be like. The whole idea of the book was so cool, and interesting to me.

I enjoyed how Bridget grew throughout the story and figured out what she really wanted in the end; she knew where her heart told her to be. I wish we could get to know more about her parents and why her dad is a little strict with her brother Jimmy. He seems like a good dad but I just wanted more on him. Jimmy was an interesting character i'm not sure how to feel about him. He seemed like he only cared about himself in some parts of the book, but then in the end you realize he just really wants to be a traveler by himself, and not get married so young.

The love story was a great add on to the book. I knew going into the story that Bridget was arranged to get married to her friend Patrick, but I didn't think I would like Patrick as much as I did. At first he seems like he's just doing what his family wants and only marrying Bridget because he has too, but as the story goes on you realize he really does love her. I'm so happy there was no love triangle, and nothing crazy happened.

Overall the book wrapped up pretty well, I would've liked an Epilogue or something just so I could know where all the characters ended up. The ending however wasn't horrible and i'm satisfied with the ending. I recommend this book to you if you're looking for something short to read, and want to read something different. This is a book that I will recommend to people, just so they can read something you don't get the chance to read about everyday.

[Nicholas saldana-rodas · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book I never heard of the group called travelers. I had also never though those kinds of people existed in the real world. the author did a great job telling the story about a young girl that does not know what she what’s in life that’s why she is divide between staying with her parents and marry the man that her parents arranged or leave her life behind to go find herself with the help of her older sister.

[Meg Macri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done.

[Fontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written. I was disappointed that Bridget chose to stay a Traveler. She did not like hurting people. I thought she would want to better herself and go to school.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com

Bridget and her family are Travelers. They're a little-known group of people in America who travel around the country, making money in usually illegal ways, and keep to themselves, with their own traditions and way of life. People who aren't Travelers are called Country, and Travelers usually isolate themselves from these people. They don't trust them, and only interact with them to scam money off of them. Travelers only go to Country schools for a few years, just long enough to know what they need to.

Bridget is a little different from many Travelers in that way. She works Country jobs, as a cashier, and she's been going to Country schools years longer than most other Traveler teenagers. Still, though, she keeps to the Traveler way most of the time. She and her friend, Ann, make their money by ripping off the local K-mart in whatever town they're in. Her parents have arranged a marriage for her, with Ann's brother, Patrick. Her brother, Jimmy, has grown up helping their father fix driveways and roofs with watered-down sealant to make a better profit by scamming Country people.

Bridget doesn't always like her life as a Traveler. She isn't sure she wants to marry Patrick, even though he's a nice guy and she does like him, but she's never see any way out of it. Then her uncle, Big Jim, takes Bridget, Jimmy, and Patrick with him all the way to Arizona, where they'll pull off the biggest scam that Bridget's ever been involved in. They'll sell condos that don't meet the building codes, and then run off with the money. The beauty of it is, the contractor won't dare tell on them, as he's the one who hired them to sell condos that don't meet building codes.

In Arizona, Bridget has some time to think about a lot of things, and maybe even figure out what she wants. But then she makes a discovery about her family, one that could change everything for Bridget...The choice is hers, but what will she decide?

Before reading SEE YOU DOWN THE ROAD, I had never heard of Travelers. I don't think many people have, but they're real people, and reading about them was very interesting. Their way of life is very different from the way most of us live, and this is an eye-opening book. Many of us don't realize how differently some people live from us, not just in far away places but right here in the United States.

On top of that, SEE YOU DOWN THE ROAD is full of amazing characters, and is very well written. All of the characters are well-drawn, realistic, and three-dimensional; even the very minor characters seem alive. The ending is not what we might expect from this sort of book, but it fits well, and is one that I really liked. It wasn't predictable, and it was still a happy ending. Whitney's ending, I felt, stayed true to the characters and flowed with the rest of the story wonderfully.

[Rhayna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bridget Daughterts life is complicated and not so exciting. Her family and her are like nomads- travelers from place to place. There was so many questions going through her head. Her parents had set an arranged marriage for her and Patrick. At age sixteen her parents also wanted her to drop out of high school because they wanted her to constatly travel with them and continue on their journey. They thought this because always having to be in a new school was a prosses for them and if she droped out it would be easier for them. She didn't want to drop out because all she wanted to do is focus on her studies because it is what she wanted. Eventually she had to drop out because of her parents, she always had to do what they say even if she didn't agree. In the end of the book she planed a scam because of her brother on Patrick and her family. See her family does these illegal things to basically stay alive and travel all around, but her uncle Jim takes her brother, Patrick and her to Arizona and there they do the big scam. The scam was that they sell condos but they don't meet the buildings codes- requirements basicaly, so that's why its a scam because it is illegal to do this. They took the money and ran off back home with Patrick. Even through everything she fell in love with Patrick and stayed with him. At the end of the book the author didn't really tell you what happen with everyone it was a cliff hanger.

This book had to major themes present. Guilt and regret. I say guilt because she feels guilty for lying to her parents and not telling them what she had done. Also for regret because she always stayed regreting making some of the choises she made. For example not to do what she wanted and fallow her dreams and the scam which was bad. What I liked about this book was how they showed the life of these travelers and the rare job and how they use to do things. What I disliked was how there were so many questions unanswered and the cliff hanger.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about traveling people. The author was not a traveler so I was kind of bummed about that, but she does give voice to a lower class of white people who have their own way of life and culture and language that exists and can be relative to teens. Bridget is a 16 year old girl who is a traveler. A traveler is someone who lives in a trailor and travels around the country doing odd jobs and pulling scams. Bridget's role in life as a traveler woman is to find a husband, someone who will take care of her and her family in their old age. She has a beau. Someone she has known her whole life. But she doesn't know that she wants to be a traveler. She is smart. She likes books. She asks questions. She doesn't know if she wants to pull scams and take care of the house for the rest of her life. So she tries to rebel. But that blows up in her face. And then she finds out her mom has a family secret one that could give her a way out of traveler life and make her a country girl. But does she take it? Read to find out!

One good line of Bridget is "travelers never say goodbye. We always say "see you down the road"" I used to be obsessed with this kind of language knitpicking and now thinking about it I still am in a way. I don't allow people to end a phone convo with "I'll let you go" I don't allow people to say things like "don't anybody help me around here" when they could say "can you help me". I guess this is not as desperate as it felt in my teen years when someone saying goodbye instead of see you felt like death. But language control is still something I am militant about.

[Breeze Reeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally fully enjoyed every part of this book from beginning to end. When I first started reading it, I liked how the author, Kim Whitney, started the first chapter very bluntly. She got right to the point and didn't exaggerate on things that didn't matter. As I got deeper into this book, I realized that it related a lot to my life and that I wasn't just reading it, I was relating each part to my life more and more. The main character Bridget is a 15 year old girl just like me and everything that was going on in her life was almost the same as the stuff going on in my life. I liked this book for that reason and a few more. Another reason why I enjoyed this book was because of the terms that Whitney used. She didn't use big words and she made it simple. I all together would give this book a five star rating and I would recommend it to all girls from ages 12 and up. This book is a fictional drama about a teenage girl and her love life and the changes she goes through all while living in a trailer and moving around the United States. That's why I would recommend this book to girls.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am always reading several books at once, and I found that after starting this one that it was the one I wanted to turn to the most. It was a very quick and easy read, too. It was the first time I recall reading about Travelers, so I was interested in learning about their way of life & I found it easy to sympathize with the main character's, Bridget, internal conflicts. The only thing I didn't like was that we don't get to see the conclusion to all of her struggles. We get to see that Patrick does love Bridget, which I supposed all along, but we don't see the conclusion to Bridget's bigger struggles. I would have loved to see how Bridget copes with the moral issues of theft. I'm not content to believe she's happy with them just because she has love.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally - an engaging, readable young adult novel! Whew. I was beginning to worry I am too old to enjoy another novel from this genre, but See You Down the Road is an excellent read.

Inspired by researching an actual culture of modern-day gypsy con-artists called "Travelers," Kim Ablon Whitney weaves a compelling story about a teen-aged girl, Bridget, who has grown up in this world but finds herself struggling between family obligations and personal desires/ethics.

I couldn't put it down. I'll also never trust a stranger in a K-Mart or Walmart parking lot - or a traveling contractor peddling painting or driveway paving ;)

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a girl named bridget and her life as a traveler. Her brother and her dad never get along, her uncle is wanted in 12 states and she is being forced to get married. My favorite part would have to be when her boyfriend Patrick proposes to her. This book would be suited more toward high school girls. I think that bridget goes through alot of trials like normal girls but she is on the road 24/7.

[Niah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a girl who loves to travel. Her family never says in one place so she never stays at one school. Her father doesn' tknow why she wants to go to school and her mom thinks it's a good idea fo rher to go. She loves cars espicially wierd looking cars or red ones. When she grows up she wants to be a mechanic. But her brother doesn't think she can because she's a girl. So she has to marry a guy she doesn't really like and they're going to travel the world so that means no school for her for a long time.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of Irish Travelers before reading this book. They are a group of people who travel all over the US earning money by conning, scamming, and doing various odd jobs. Bridget is a believeable protagonist, caught in the Disney-style dilemna of not knowing what you want in life. But this novel is decidedly non-sugarcoated and harsh at times, which means I wouldn't reccomend it for preteens. If you like unique coming-of-age stories or learning about different cultures, then this is the book for you.

[Holly Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was okay. It was about families of Travelers that steal and sell to make money. They move from place to place constantly and have arranged marriages. Personally, I didn't really like it. I never connected to it because most of the dilemma's they went through don't relate to me at all. A few things were fun to read, like the problems teens go through. So that was kind of more fun to read about.

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character is a young girl.Her and her family are always moving.they dont live in a house like a normal family they live in a Camper.She finally told her father that she wanted to be diffrent than everyone else in her family.She wanted to go to school and finsh up her education but, her father thaught other wise.He thaught that she should stay with them and, help her mother with every thing in the camper

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bridget's family are Travelers, American gypsys. Her father has chosen her husband for her and they keep moving up the marriage date. She likes Patrick. He is kind and a good worker, but is she ready for marriage? She also wonders what it would be like to live in one place and not steal for a living.

The content which includes sexual activity and some language would cause me to recommend this book to girls over the age of 15.

[Annie Bower · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great. I loved this book for multiple reasons, one of them being that even though she wasn’t a normal teenager she still acted and thought like one. It was extremely fun to be able to follow her through every event in the book and be able to kind of experience it with her. I also enjoyed the love story that is wound into it. I recommend this book to anyone who is in to realistic fiction books that have small romantic streaks in them.

[Courtney Chappell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok book. It was sort of hard to get into in the beginning but eventually I was intrigued. It really started getting interesting near the end, when we find out that Bridget has a sister named Winnie that she didn't know about. I was sad that jimmy left but I really liked the ending with Patrick. We find out that Patrick has been saving himself for Bridget too and he finally proposes. Overall this was an easy read but one I won't be reading again.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay book about Travellers, the only one I've found so far about them in America. The main character, Bridget, has some good issues here -- should she submit to being a wife, mother, and having her future husband make decisions, or should she go off to lead a "normal" life with settled people? The fact that her culture traditionally chooses her husband and dowry complicates matters.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not aware that 21st century America had its own version of gypsies. Which has a cool ring to it, except apparently they're just nomadic con families with a splash of 'women are inferior creatures who must be married off right quick' thrown in.

[Emily F · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a good book because it was humorous. It was about a family that lives in a trailer park and the older brother gets in a fight with the dad and runs away. He comes back with a bunch of money. More money than his dad has ever made.

[Angela]

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[Heather Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this at my sister's suggestion...cute easy read. I read it in about an hour or so.

[Chelssss(: Pelzer]

It was very good. I'd for sure read it again.

[Melan · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wish Jimmy didnt leave! :(

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at a way of life that I'm not sure is really around anymore...

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

#92
Borrowed from library.

FS: "One good thing about living in a trailer is that you don't have to pack when you leave town."

LS:

[Jill Pickle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irish Travelers: fascinating!

[Juanita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LEARNED THAT NEVER GET CAUGHT CHEATING LOLZ