Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

The Colossus of Roads

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
From the author of the acclaimed The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle comes a tale of traffic jams, secret plans, and one eleven-year-old boy's determination to save his family's livelihood.
Rick Rusek's stomach has a lot to say. It's got opinions on tasty foods, not-so-tasty foods, and driving in traffic-jammed Los Angeles makes it roil, boil, gurgle, and howl. It's doing the best it can. It never meant to earn its owner the nickname Carsick Rick or make him change schools for fifth grade.
And Rick's stomach isn't the only one dealing with terrible traffic. His family's catering service, Smotch, is teetering on the verge of ruin after a rash of late deliveries and missed appointments. Fortunately, Rick has the solution. Unfortunately, no one wants to listen to a kid.
Absolutely certain that he could fix the constant, endless traffic snarls, Rick hatches a plan. But he'll need help from his unicorn-loving Girl Scout neighbor, a famous street artist, and the best driver in L.A. Together they'll take on the stream of stalled cars—and a secret conspiracy or two, too.
It's going to be tough, but Rick won't give up. If he can successfully move the 330,000 slow-moving cars standing in the way of his family's future, maybe everyone will see that he's not Carsick Rick. He's one of the seven wonders of Los Angeles.
He's the Colossus of Roads.
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      March 15, 2020
      Los Angeles' infamous traffic scene is a hot mess, and it's up to 11-year-old Rick Rusek to fix it. Deep in the San Fernando Valley lives the audacious young problem-solver, poring over maps of LA's highways and streets to diagnose a way to unclog the county's traffic woes. Ironically, Rick can't bear car trips due to an unrelenting case of motion sickness. Just ask his chatty stomach, a cheeseburger-obsessed conversationalist that helps Rick with unknotting the trickiest of ideas. Rick's chats with his stomach offer one source of reassurance after he finds out that his parents' catering business, Smotch (roots: Polish food), risks falling into financial troubles due in part to LA's notorious traffic flow. Convinced that his Snarl Solutions could help alleviate his parents' problems if only someone in power would listen, Rick joins his neighbor's Girl Scout group, led by a celebrated street artist with familial ties to the head of LA's Department of Transportation. Can the "Colossus of Roads" save his parents' business and lead LA toward a brighter future? Uss' slice of whimsy teleports readers to the smog-filled, congested streets of Los Angeles and gives them a hearty appreciation for big, improbable ideas. Thanks to a fun cast of eclectic characters, the author manages to temper the story's more peculiar moments, but it's her soft mix of humor and insight that steals the spotlight. Though Rick's neighbors are Latinx, the book's default seems to be white. Colossally cool. (Fiction. 9-12)

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from April 15, 2020
      Grades 4-6 *Starred Review* Eleven-year-old Rick is an Angeleno with two truly unusual talents: a genius for understanding traffic patterns and how to fix them and a gift for coaxing trust and friendship out of Mila, a shy, silent, artistic younger neighbor. Both come into play when Mila quietly invites him to join her in a Girl Scouts arts project?fancifully repainting old road signs to be posted around the city as street art. To Rick, frustrated by repeated fruitless efforts to contact the local department of transportation, this looks like a golden opportunity to prove the worth of his ingenious Snarl Solutions while also saving his parents' Polish catering business, which is on the verge of going under due to an inability to make timely deliveries. A few forged work orders later, well-placed and amusingly altered signs have caused the hellish traffic jams on the freeway over Sepulveda Pass to disappear. But this triumph is just a warm-up for two even tougher tests. Mila's discovery that Rick, the self-styled Colossus of Roads, has used her work without asking opens a rift of betrayal that seems unbridgeable. Then a major earthquake leaves Mila's troop stranded amidst a massive tangle of blocked and impassable streets. Readers with underappreciated talents of their own will be heartened by Uss' (The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle, 2018) ultimately unabashedly feel-good sophomore tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

    • School Library Journal

      June 5, 2020

      Gr 4 Up-When readers are first introduced to 11-year-old Rick Rusek, it seems that the only friend Rick has is his chatty stomach, which is so affected by motion sickness that he transfers back to his neighborhood school from the math and science magnet (the new bus schedule caused his route home to be longer, and his fragile stomach couldn't withstand such a ride). Rick's mom's catering business is on the verge of closure due to continuously missed appointments and late deliveries. Clients are not concerned with the massive traffic jams everyone in his Southern California community faces daily; they are only concerned with punctual delivery service for their food. Rick has been obsessed with delivery routes since second grade and this year is no different; except this year he's prepared a colossal road plan to alleviate the ginormous traffic snarls that could save his mom's business. To get this done, he will need the help of a Girl Scout troop, a famous artist, and a NASCAR-trained abuelita. The intergenerational cast of characters emphasizes how people of different ages can work together to improve their community. VERDICT In this heartwarming, fast-paced story, Uss seamlessly weaves STEAM threads along with a dose of wit and humor to help readers focus on the importance of friendship, family, and second chances.-Sabrina Carnesi, Crittenden M.S., Newport News, VA

      Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • The Horn Book

      July 1, 2020
      Eleven-year-old Rick Rusek is a traffic-pattern savant. He lives in Los Angeles, where he studies the streets and highways of the metropolis looking for ways to ease traffic. When Rick becomes involved in a street-art project with his friend Mila Herrera, he realizes it's his chance to secretly implement some of his traffic solutions and in so doing boost his parents' catering business and solve their financial troubles. An eccentric cast of supporting characters surrounds Rick, including Mila and her extended family. As Rick works on his project, he learns that his neighbors and friends have hidden hobbies and talents (Mila's mom is a member of a traffic-disrupting guerrilla bicycle club; her abuelita belongs to a club of senior citizens who weave erratically through neighborhood traffic, determined to slow down other drivers and protect pedestrians) and that he himself is gifted at more than just moving cars around the city. This is a quintessentially Southern California story, in which highway traffic over the Sepulveda Pass is more of an antagonist than even an earthquake. Uss (The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle, rev. 7/18) invites her readers to suspend disbelief just long enough for Rick to save the day.

      (Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

    • The Horn Book

      July 1, 2020
      Eleven-year-old Rick Rusek is a traffic-pattern savant. He lives in Los Angeles, where he studies the streets and highways of the metropolis looking for ways to ease traffic. When Rick becomes involved in a street-art project with his friend Mila Herrera, he realizes it's his chance to secretly implement some of his traffic solutions and in so doing boost his parents' catering business and solve their financial troubles. An eccentric cast of supporting characters surrounds Rick, including Mila and her extended family. As Rick works on his project, he learns that his neighbors and friends have hidden hobbies and talents (Mila's mom is a member of a traffic-disrupting guerrilla bicycle club; her abuelita belongs to a club of senior citizens who weave erratically through neighborhood traffic, determined to slow down other drivers and protect pedestrians) and that he himself is gifted at more than just moving cars around the city. This is a quintessentially Southern California story, in which highway traffic over the Sepulveda Pass is more of an antagonist than even an earthquake. Uss (The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle, rev. 7/18) invites her readers to suspend disbelief just long enough for Rick to save the day. Maeve Visser Knoth

      (Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Loading