Seventeen-year-old Duff Pringle has it all figured out. He’s bypassing college for a job in California as a computer programmer. College, after all, would just be four more years of torture among peers who aren’t nearly as mature as he. So he’s got his first used car, a route mapped out from Richmond, West Virginia, to San Jose, and six days to complete the journey. “ 'This isn’t some computer program you can control by typing in a bunch of numbers,’ his father had said over and over. 'This is life. ’ ” Exactly, Duff thinks. And he’s about to start living it. Life has a more than a few surprises in store for Duff over the course of the next six days—and several cars—in Jeanne DuPrau’s funny story about a teen who thinks he knows it all, and gradually sees it all unravel. Duff is a tenderly honest character—a smart, socially awkward teen who falls back on false ego to bluster his way through situations where he feels lacking. Meeting up with a unique assortment of strangers—those he knows he can trust, those he knows he can’t, and those he puts up with while deciding—provides Duff with some of his biggest challenges and most outrageous moments on the road. By journey’s end, he’s left with nothing, or at least nothing he expected. But in truth he’s gained much: a good friend, a bit of humility, and the ability to embrace the unknown. (Ages 13–16)