  | This way to happy Author: Myers, Alison Green | |
| Price: $22.58 | ||
Summary:
Reilly Rhoades struggles to keep her family's amusement park afloat while grieving the death of her beloved grandfather.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 4.10 Points: 7.0 Quiz: 556173 |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (07/15/25)
Booklist (08/01/25)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (00/09/25)
Full Text Reviews:
Other - 06/23/2025 Myers (A Bird Will Soar) wields a roller coaster of emotions in this pragmatic novel about how to "find your happy." When white-cued Reilly Rhoades’s grandfather-founder of the family’s amusement park business-suddenly dies, Reilly’s grief feels insurmountable. But the 12-year-old’s grandmother, mother, and aunt are determined to carry on the family tradition and open the park for the summer. Underneath the strain of keeping up appearances, however, hairline fractures appear in each of the Rhoades’s lives: Mom and Aunt Caroline begin lashing out at each other, and Grandma suffers a medical emergency. Feeling consumed by her grief and the stress at home, Reilly discovers a kindred lonely spirit in reckless, purple-haired Alex, who’s staying at the park’s adjoining campground and navigating his own family issues. Together, Reilly and Alex plan to make Grandpa’s dream to link the park and the campground a reality, in the process charting a course to brighter days. Via the complexly rendered characters-including three generations of strong and personable women-Myers tackles themes of addiction and recovery, divorce, and loss, and suggests that being open to happiness might be the best way to find it. Ages 10-up. Agent: Jennifer Rof?, Andrea Brown Literary. (Sept.) - Copyright 2025
Booklist - 08/01/2025 Since her grandfather’s passing the year before, 12-year-old Reilly Rhoades and her family attempt to balance modernity with doing things the “Rhoades Family Way” as they open their family amusement park and campground for the summer season. Reilly internalizes her melancholy as her similarly aged cousin Nic embraces the responsibilities once held by their grandfather. After a medical emergency involving their grandmother requires shutting down the park, it deepens a chasm between the girls’ mothers. After Nic and her mother leave, Reilly makes friends with a boy named Alex, who is on a trip with his family. The weight of the Rhoades legacy is heavy, but it’s made lighter as Alex and Reilly navigate family challenges in tandem. Alex’s friendship inspires Reilly to complete her grandfather’s final, unfinished project. At the start, Reilly appears more as a viewer than an actor in her own story, but, in a compulsively readable narrative fueled by characters fraught with tension, Reilly is a balm of introspection. Overall, Schneider Award winner Myers presents a refreshing story of accepting change as a positive way forward. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.
