Richard Scrimger’s second children’s novel, The Way to Schenectady, is a hilarious account of a family’s car trip that captures the tradition, friction, and inevitable detours that accompany this annual summer ritual.

Thirteen-year-old Jane Peeler is looking forward to her family’s vacation. School is over, and she will soon be reunited with her mother at Auntie Vera’s house in New England. Her mother has been working a lot lately and Jane knows that they’ll have some much-needed time together, if she can just get from Toronto to Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, on schedule.

During a stop at a gas station, Jane and her brother Bill meet a homeless man named Marty, who is trying to get to Schenectady for his brother’s funeral the following day. The children smuggle Marty into the van, the first in a series of mishaps that almost prevent the family from arriving at their destination on time. Scrimger’s writing is smart, dialogue-heavy, and awfully funny. Among the supporting characters are Jane’s well-meaning but absent-minded father, her foul-mouthed, chain-smoking grandmother, and baby Bernie, who speaks in full sentences but still isn’t toilet-trained. Even when the setting is constrained – inside the van, for example – the comedy these characters generate is high-energy: they sing, scream, swear, snore, fight, make up, then fight again. At times the dialogue is so snappy that one senses there is a well-choreographed play just beneath the surface of the novel.

Complementing the text are Linda Hendry’s cheerful black-and-white illustrations. Simple yet expressive, the pictures reflect Scrimger’s playful tone and help draw the reader into this very enjoyable story. The Way to Schenectady is an excellent follow-up to Scrimger’s The Nose from Jupiter.