Along for the Ride (Anna Sullivan)

Title: Along For The Ride
Author: Sarah Dessen
Publisher: Penguin Group
Pages: 383

I found this book at the South Hadley Public Library.

The book Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen is about a young girl named Auden. Her parents got divorced when she was a child and she would stay awake at night just to prevent them from fighting. When the inevitable happened, her parents divorce, her father moved far away, to a town called Colby, and Auden lived with her mother. Now Auden, about to go off to college, decides to spend the summer at her father’s house, with her stepmother and new stepsister. While away, Auden gets a job at her stepmother’s clothing boutique, Clementine’s, and is finally able to relate to girls her age, friendships, and boys. Throughout all of this, Auden had constantly kept running into a mysterious boy named Eli. They became friends instantly and Auden was able to have the teenage life she had always wished for, and Eli was able to deal with the death of his best friend.

I think the audience for this book would be teenagers, more specifically girls, because the main character is a teenage girl, and a lot of the things that she goes though are relatable.

Sarah Dessen’s writing style is intricate, yet it is a very easy read. In Along For The Ride, she writes about things that any audience could relate to.“He just stood there, looking at me, and I had this flash of us, here in this little garage apartment, in the middle of the night. From up above, in a plane passing over, you’d just see one little light in all this dark, with no idea of the lives that were being lived within it, and in the house beside, and beside that one. So much happening in the world, night and day, hour by hour. It was no wonder we were meant to sleep, if only to check out of it for a little while.” (Dessen 266).

“’It wasn’t his fault. They were going through a four way stop, and someone ran it and hit them’” (Dessen 144).This passage really struck me because death is a very serious thing. I am lucky to not have had to deal with many deaths in my life, but the death that I have had to deal with was very hard, and was very difficult to get trough. When I put myself in Eli’s position I realized how scary that would be.

“’What is it,’ I said, ‘With you and this bike thing?’‘Well, I am in the business. Plus it’s a big part of growing up,’ he replied, moving down to the cheese display. ‘And it’s not too late.’” (Dessen 161).I thought this passage was important because it shows how much Auden missed out on as a child. She was never able to do any of the things a normal child would do because she was forced to grow up so quickly. If I were put in Auden’s position, I would have a very hard time, because she never knew how to be a kid.

“She exhaled slowly, the kind of sound someone makes as they watch a baseball fly over a fence, way, way gone.‘Oh, my. I’m sorry to hear that.’‘Are you?’ I said this without really realizing it, and instantly regretted how surprised I sounded. Her tone was a bit sharper as she said, ‘Well, of course. One never likes to see a marriage in trouble, especially when a child is involved.’”This passage struck me because today it is so common for people to get divorced, sometimes more than once. So many people have dealt with divorce, but especially kids. I am lucky that my parents are still together, because I do not think I would be able to deal with that. it would be a huge change in my life that would be difficult handle.

I interacted very well with the book Along For The Ride. I was able to relate to a lot of the things that went on in Auden’s life. Since I am almost at the age that Auden was in the book, I am able to understand many of the things that she was going through. This book really spoke to me, broke out of her shell and did things that she had never tried before, like riding a bike.