Joyride » (1ST BOYDS)

What begins as a lark, a joyride in Jeff's Bronco through a farmer's bean field, ends in a most unexpected summer. Giving up tennis, Jeff is thrust into helping with the harvest to pay off his debt. The strawberry fields are only miles away from the tennis courts, but worlds apart. The language, the culture, even the handshakes of the workers are different, not to mention the backbreaking work. Jeff's camaraderie with Macario, a hired hand, and Alexa, the farmer's daughter, makes for a transformative time of understanding and friendship. When vandals repeatedly destroy farm property, Jeff is challenged to find his true allegiance in this highly readable novel told with sensitivity from a unique vantage point.

Publishers Weekly

Although slow-moving at first, Olson's debut novel convincingly relates the challenges of a teen tennis champ turned farmhand for the summer. High school senior Jeff McKenzie must work for three weeks on the Hamptons' berry farm to pay for damages caused by his "joyride" through one of their fields. Initially, he resents working alongside migrants from Mexico, but his repugnance predictably transforms into quiet respect for his co-workers and the Hamptons, especially the older daughter Alexa, who loves swimming as much as Jeff does tennis. Olson's attention to detail is both a strength and a weakness; she successfully evokes the grittiness of farm life, but some readers may grow impatient wading through long descriptive passages that detail the process of picking, weighing and delivering fruit to the cannery. The author's criticism of the country-club set (Jeff's friends and family) and empathy for the pickers is slightly overdrawn. Nonetheless, readers will likely be inspired by Jeff's decision to fight racism both in and out of the field. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)