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

by Claudia Friddell (Author) Jeremy Holmes (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

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

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Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus

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. 

ALA/Booklist

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.

School Library Journal

Starred Review

Gr 3-6--An entertaining and informative picture book describing the camping adventures of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone. These famous men formed a friendship and shared a great love of the outdoors, calling themselves the Four Vagabonds. Their famous road trips inspired other Americans to discover the treasures in nature with a then new favorite pastime--recreational camping. The illustrations are bright and detailed with humorous speech bubbles in some panels and the four friends depicted as amusing caricatures. The afterword includes a detailed history of these four fellows, where they traveled, and why their adventures eventually came to an end. There are also photographs of the camping trips, their firsthand accounts, as well as accounts from some of the people they met on their trips. A detailed resource list is included for further research. VERDICT 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.--Heidi Dechief

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"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


Claudia Friddell
Claudia Friddell loves the magic of bringing history to life. She is the author of several acclaimed books, including Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call, Saving Lady Liberty, Goliath, and George Washington's Spies. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit claudiafriddell.com.

Christopher Cyr is an award-winning freelance illustrator living in Massachusetts. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design's Illustration program, his illustrations are painted digitally in Adobe Photoshop. Some pieces integrate scanned sketches and watercolor textures.
Illustrator site: plaidcats.com
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781684372720
Lexile Measure
890
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Calkins Creek Books
Publication date
October 11, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF025210 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States/20th Century
JNF007090 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Science & Technology
JNF058000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Travel
Library of Congress categories
Picture books
United States
Camping
Automobile travel
Ford, Henry
Edison, Thomas A
Burroughs, John
Firestone, Harvey Samuel

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