Genius Jolene

By Sara Cassidy and Charlene Chua

On her annual trip in her father’s 18-wheeler, Jolene is ready for some new adventures.

Eight-year-old Jolene is headed to Los Angeles on a six-day road trip to deliver some newsprint with her dad. Just like last year, they tell each other stories and listen to music. They also keep up their favorite tradition: critiquing one type of food at every stop. This time it’s onion rings. But this year is also different. Unlike last year, Jolene’s parents are no longer together. They split up when her father came out as gay. These are big changes for Jolene, but she is spunky and smart and has a good heart. She’s ready to stand up for what’s right—both on and off the road.

The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Apr 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781459825314

Sara Cassidy

SARA CASSIDY is a journalist, editor and the author of twenty children’s books. Her books have won the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and been Junior Library Guild selections. They have been nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award in Young People's Literature, Chocolate Lily Award, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award, Diamond Willow Award, Silver Birch Express Award and the Sunburst Award. Sara lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Book preview

Chapter One

Dad, Joey and I step out of the apartment building into the cool night. A streetlamp hums above us, and the enormous Freightliner rumbles at the curb. It isn’t actually allowed on most city streets because it weighs so much. As much as a school bus carrying eight elephants, Dad likes to say.

Joey hands me my backpack. You pack too light, he says.

I pack what I need, I tell him. Four underwear, four T-shirts, a hoodie and the jeans I’m wearing.

No swimsuit?

Underwear.

Pajamas?

One of Dad’s T-shirts.

Joey shakes his head. You’ll get cold.

It’s nearly summer! I cry.

But Joey’s already running back into the apartment building. I look at Dad and smirk. He shrugs. Then he yanks open the door of the truck’s cab, and I scramble up.

My side of the eighteen-wheeler is completely different from his. It’s duller than a waiting room. The biggest excitement is the glove compartment.

A bird's eye view of the Freightliner semi-truck shows it parked on the side of a street, a post box and city garbage can on the sidewalk. Jolene hoists themselves up into the passenger side of the cab.

But Dad’s side is a party. A cockpit with dials and levers and switches and gauges and two radios and a navigation screen. His huge chair goes up and down and back and forth, and it has a switch that makes the seat as hard as cement or as soft and fluffy as a cloud.

It’s a strict rule that I stay on my side. I’m allowed to reach over to turn on the fan if the cab is sweltering, or to change the radio station if the news is too sad, but that’s it.

While Dad waits for Joey, I arrange my blanket around me and strap myself in. Cozy. Dad’s beaded keychain, which I made for him at out-of-school care, sways from the ignition switch.

A blue cardboard tree dangles from the fan. It’s called an air freshener, but,

as Joey says, it doesn’t make the air fresh; it just smells it up with something different.

What kind of stink would blue be? Blueberry? I rub the tree, then put my fingertips to my nose. The smell makes my throat itch like the school janitor’s floor cleaners do.

Joey comes out of the apartment building with a plastic shopping bag stuffed full of clothing. I spy the sash from my fuzzy bathrobe and my least favorite pair of pajamas, the ones with the too-tight waistband.

On the sidewalk Joey and Dad talk like strangers.

Have a safe trip, Joey says to Dad.

We’ll be on the number 19 all the way, Dad tells him. That highway’s designed for safety. It’s lit up at night like a video game. We can’t go wrong.

Call when you can, Joey says. Then softly he adds, Okay?

Under a street lamp, Joey stands on the sidewalk outside an apartment building and solemnly waves goodbye, a smile on their face. They hold a bag with fruit printed on the side in one hand with a starry bathrobe spilling from the top.

I will, Dad says. He steps toward Joey. They clap each other on the back. Then, quick as a sniff, as