Road Trip!

Camping with the Four Vagabonds: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs

Illustrated by Jeremy Holmes
Ebook (EPUB FXL CPB)
On sale Oct 11, 2022 | 40 Pages | 9781635924619
Age 7-10 years | Grades 2-5
Reading Level: Lexile 890L | Fountas & Pinnell T
Join Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs on their pioneering camping trips during the early 1900s in this energetic and entertaining nonfiction picture-book adventure.

After years of inventing things that other people needed, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford realized there was something they needed—a vacation! So, the famous inventors packed up Ford's Model T and invited their good friends Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs to join them as "the Four Vagabonds" hit America's back roads to enjoy the country's natural beauty, fireside chats, and frolicking fun with friends—all while inspiring future generations to invent camping adventures of their own.

“Buckle yourself in as Claudia Friddell and Jeremy Holmes take you on a fun, creative, and certainly unique road trip with America’s most famous vagabonds—Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs. The colorful and spirited illustrations, the stories of the Vagabond’s bivouacking travels and campsite escapades, and the well-researched bibliography makes Road Trip! a great addition to any child’s library!” —Matt Andres, curatorial registrar, Edison and Ford Winter Estates
Texas Library Association Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List

★  "An entertaining and informative picture book describing the camping adventures of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone....This is a dynamic and engaging book to complement units on inventors, nature, and camping. It is sure to spark further exploration of these famous men in history, and presents quite a contrast with what young people know of today’s founders and start-up entrepreneurs." —School Library Journal, starred review

“Buckle yourself in as Claudia Friddell and Jeremy Holmes take you on a fun, creative, and certainly unique road trip with America’s most famous vagabonds—Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs. The colorful and spirited illustrations, the stories of the Vagabond’s bivouacking travels and campsite escapades, and the well-researched bibliography makes Road Trip! a great addition to any child’s library!” —Matt Andres, curatorial registrar, Edison and Ford Winter Estates

"Three titans of industry (and one writer) rough it... illustrations in a muted palette, reminiscent of sepia films highlighted with green and orange, help make this feel like an old-timey film. [C]hildren, especially those with an interest in history, will get a kick out of this lighthearted but informational text." Kirkus Reviews

“(Y)ounger readers will enjoy Friddell’s sprightly account of how an American supergroup—Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone (think: tires), and nature writer John Burroughs, with occasional hangers-on like (wait for it) Warren G. Harding—got together for a series of annual tours from 1914 on that took them from the Everglades to the California coast. In stylized illustrations, Holmes kits out his otherwise recognizable figures in pale faces with cheek spots, like mimes, and poses them, sometimes comically, in settings ranging from elaborately detailed workshops to spacious outdoor scenes… the book presents a colorful bit of Americana.”Booklist
Claudia Friddell is the author of several children’s books, including To the Front!: Clara Barton Braves the Battle of Antietam, Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call: The Heroic Story of WWI Telephone Operators, and Saving Lady Liberty: Joseph Pulitzer’s Fight for the Statue of Liberty. She has worked with children throughout her career, which included being a therapist, a school counselor, and a teacher. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit claudiafriddell.com View titles by Claudia Friddell
Jeremy Holmes is an internationally renowned children's book illustrator whose work has received numerous awards and starred reviews from critics. He won the prestigious BolognaRagazzi Opera Prima Award (2010) for his debut book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Visit jeremyholmesstudio.com. View titles by Jeremy Holmes

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Join Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs on their pioneering camping trips during the early 1900s in this energetic and entertaining nonfiction picture-book adventure.

After years of inventing things that other people needed, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford realized there was something they needed—a vacation! So, the famous inventors packed up Ford's Model T and invited their good friends Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs to join them as "the Four Vagabonds" hit America's back roads to enjoy the country's natural beauty, fireside chats, and frolicking fun with friends—all while inspiring future generations to invent camping adventures of their own.

“Buckle yourself in as Claudia Friddell and Jeremy Holmes take you on a fun, creative, and certainly unique road trip with America’s most famous vagabonds—Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs. The colorful and spirited illustrations, the stories of the Vagabond’s bivouacking travels and campsite escapades, and the well-researched bibliography makes Road Trip! a great addition to any child’s library!” —Matt Andres, curatorial registrar, Edison and Ford Winter Estates

Reviews

Texas Library Association Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List

★  "An entertaining and informative picture book describing the camping adventures of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone....This is a dynamic and engaging book to complement units on inventors, nature, and camping. It is sure to spark further exploration of these famous men in history, and presents quite a contrast with what young people know of today’s founders and start-up entrepreneurs." —School Library Journal, starred review

“Buckle yourself in as Claudia Friddell and Jeremy Holmes take you on a fun, creative, and certainly unique road trip with America’s most famous vagabonds—Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs. The colorful and spirited illustrations, the stories of the Vagabond’s bivouacking travels and campsite escapades, and the well-researched bibliography makes Road Trip! a great addition to any child’s library!” —Matt Andres, curatorial registrar, Edison and Ford Winter Estates

"Three titans of industry (and one writer) rough it... illustrations in a muted palette, reminiscent of sepia films highlighted with green and orange, help make this feel like an old-timey film. [C]hildren, especially those with an interest in history, will get a kick out of this lighthearted but informational text." Kirkus Reviews

“(Y)ounger readers will enjoy Friddell’s sprightly account of how an American supergroup—Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone (think: tires), and nature writer John Burroughs, with occasional hangers-on like (wait for it) Warren G. Harding—got together for a series of annual tours from 1914 on that took them from the Everglades to the California coast. In stylized illustrations, Holmes kits out his otherwise recognizable figures in pale faces with cheek spots, like mimes, and poses them, sometimes comically, in settings ranging from elaborately detailed workshops to spacious outdoor scenes… the book presents a colorful bit of Americana.”Booklist

Author

Claudia Friddell is the author of several children’s books, including To the Front!: Clara Barton Braves the Battle of Antietam, Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call: The Heroic Story of WWI Telephone Operators, and Saving Lady Liberty: Joseph Pulitzer’s Fight for the Statue of Liberty. She has worked with children throughout her career, which included being a therapist, a school counselor, and a teacher. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit claudiafriddell.com View titles by Claudia Friddell
Jeremy Holmes is an internationally renowned children's book illustrator whose work has received numerous awards and starred reviews from critics. He won the prestigious BolognaRagazzi Opera Prima Award (2010) for his debut book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Visit jeremyholmesstudio.com. View titles by Jeremy Holmes

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