ALA Booklist (Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 1998)

It's downright wonderful these days to find a teenage protagonist who is smart, moral, funny, confident (mostly), and open-minded about grown-ups. Not that hulking Jenna Boller doesn't have her share of problems. A strapping five foot eleven with a strong work ethic, Jenna is an outsider at school. The fact that she spends most of her time selling shoes at Gladstone's shoe store (and loving it) doesn't help in terms of a social life. But it's her alcoholic father who is her main concern. When he suddenly comes back into her life, drunk as usual, she's not sure she can handle it. Lucky for her, rich, curmudgeonly Mrs. Gladstone, who is 73, needs someone to chauffeur her to Texas to a stockholders' meeting and help her check out the Gladstone stores along the way. It seems her son is engineering a company takeover that is breaking her heart. Like Squashed (1992), this has its introspective side as well as its share of sad moments that show the long-term damage alcoholism has on families and individuals. But it's also a warm, funny, insightful story about ordinary people who look beyond age to the things they have in common and the wisdom they can share.

Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 1998)

Jenna, newly armed with a driver's license, thought she had her summer all worked out--until Mrs. Gladstone, owner of the shoestore chain where Jenna works in Chicago, shows up and asks Jenna to drive her to Texas. A subplot about Jenna's alcoholic father is a little heavy-handed but does not impede the pedal power of this fast and funny tale of one big-boned (and big-hearted) gal's summer of discovery on the road.

Kirkus Reviews

A high-school student with a passion for selling shoes may be a hard sell to teenagers, but Bauer (Sticks, 1996, etc.) makes 16-year-old, too-tall Jenna Boller a convincing narrator in this story of love and loss in the shoe business. President and owner of shoe stores from Chicago to Texas, the elderly Mrs. Gladstone appoints Jenna, who works in one of the stores, her personal driver. As the Chicago skyline recedes, Jenna and her companion head for the Lone Star state and a stockholders' meeting, taking in shoe stores from Peoria to Little Rock, where Mrs. Gladstone uncovers not only a decline in the quality of shoes being sold, but her son's plot for a company takeover. Sharp dialogue and caustic commentary from Jenna mark the journey, which lags somewhere around Kansas; revitalizing the plot is the entrance of Harry Bender, world's greatest shoe salesman. Through him and others, Jenna learns much more than the rules of the road (``Never eat at a place called MOM'S, because it's a safe bet Mom's been dead for years'') and business acumen. Jenna's alcoholic father hovers in the background, more plot manipulation than fully realized character, but his presence throws Jenna's new maturity into relief. It's an unlikely hero's journey, and Bauer's dry humor assures readers that all's well that ends wellif not in corporate takeovers, at least in the business of growing up. (Fiction. 12-15)"

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A 16-year-old chauffeurs her crabby employer from Chicago to Dallas. """"Bauer begins with an intriguing premise, weaves in unusual settings and creates an offbeat narrator to relay them. But a supporting cast of stock characters and forced dialogue may disappoint readers of her previous novels,"""" said PW. Ages 12-up. (Jan.)

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-When it comes to creating strong, independent, and funny teenaged female characters, Bauer is in a class by herself and the 16-year-old waitress in this book is no exception. Hope Yancey and her Aunt Addie, a much-sought-after diner cook, have toured the country, one diner at a time. With each move, the teen leaves her mark, "HOPE WAS HERE," in ballpoint pen somewhere on the premises. Now in Mulhoney, WI, she has no idea that the residents of this small town will make their mark on her. G. T. Stoop, the Quaker owner of the Welcome Stairways, has leukemia, and while the disease can keep him from running the diner he loves, it can't keep him from running for mayor against a corrupt incumbent. Taking part in his campaign allows Hope to get to know Braverman, a fellow worker at the Welcome Stairways and G. T.'s greatest supporter. The mix of dealing with illness, small-town politics, and budding romance for both Hope and Addie is one that will entertain and inspire readers. Bauer tells a fast-paced, multilayered story with humor but does not gloss over the struggle of someone who is unable to trust, someone who has been left before, and who avoids getting close to anyone for fear of being left again. Teens who have come to expect witty, realistic characters and atypical (but very funny) story lines from Bauer's previous books will not be disappointed and new readers will be sure to come back for seconds.-Tracey Firestone, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.