Review Detail
3.0 1 3
(Updated: October 30, 2025)
Rating
3.0
The star of this excellent story is William “Scoob” Lamar, a biracial, black-presenting 12-year-old boy, son and grandson. It seems he and his beloved grandmother, G’ma, who is white are about to go on an unexpected road trip In the Winnebago she just bought after selling her home. scoob agrees to goes with her to escape a punishment from his father.
Along the way through the South, Scoob learns more about the grandfather he never met. G’ma and grandfather, an interracial couple, made this same trip in 1963, but never completed. Now, G’ma is bound and determined to complete the trip. She has a cell phone and uses it for the first part of the trip but discarded it in a campground saying she didn’t need a phone back then and doesn’t need it now. Therefore there is no communication with Scoob’s very worried father. As they make their way toward Juarez, Mexico, Scoob begins to suspect that G’ma might be up to something more suspicious than recreating a vacation and becomes torn between contacting another adult and protecting his grandmother.
The story takes the reader through pre– and post–civil rights movement America while confronting the country’s difficult past. For example the fact that travel was dangerous for the average black citizen, while raising questions about what has and what hasn’t changed. G’ma has a a Green Book which she brings on the trip.
This is a fun, heartwarming, heart wrenching family-centered adventure. The ending made this reader a bit teary eyed. Ages 8–12
Along the way through the South, Scoob learns more about the grandfather he never met. G’ma and grandfather, an interracial couple, made this same trip in 1963, but never completed. Now, G’ma is bound and determined to complete the trip. She has a cell phone and uses it for the first part of the trip but discarded it in a campground saying she didn’t need a phone back then and doesn’t need it now. Therefore there is no communication with Scoob’s very worried father. As they make their way toward Juarez, Mexico, Scoob begins to suspect that G’ma might be up to something more suspicious than recreating a vacation and becomes torn between contacting another adult and protecting his grandmother.
The story takes the reader through pre– and post–civil rights movement America while confronting the country’s difficult past. For example the fact that travel was dangerous for the average black citizen, while raising questions about what has and what hasn’t changed. G’ma has a a Green Book which she brings on the trip.
This is a fun, heartwarming, heart wrenching family-centered adventure. The ending made this reader a bit teary eyed. Ages 8–12
JS
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