On the Road Again!: More Travels with My Family Book

Charlie and his family are on the road again — this time to spend a year in the South of France. Unhappy at first, not wanting to leave his friends, his school and big-city life, Charlie soon finds himself caught up in the new adventures in their little village of Celeriac. He runs through the streets chased by bulls, survives an autumn flood and a winter blizzard, and discovers the pleasures of French cuisine, including snails, donkey sausage and runny cheese that smells like the boys' locker room.

Most of all, Charlie and his little brother, Max, grow fond of their neighbors — the man who steals ducks from the local river, the neighbor's dog who sleeps right in the middle of the street, and their new friends Rachid and Ahmed, who teach them how to play soccer in the village, where the goal is the open door of the church.
As a bonus, there's a hilarious driving trip through Spain in their sardine-can car.
In the end, Charlie discovers the bittersweet joys of living in a new place. "Part of me wanted to stay," he says. "Part of me wanted to go. I guess that's the way it is with traveling . . ."
A wonderful sequel to the immensely popular Travels with My Family.

Kirkus Reviews

Charlie and his little brother Max are off with their parents on a new adventure (Travels with My Family, 2006), this time to the tiny village of Celeriac in France. The stone house that is theirs for a year contains the remains of an indoor well and sits on a narrow road (which is usually blocked by the neighbor's napping dog) near a vineyard. The family's new life is full of odd characters and strange happenings. Perhaps the most exciting event is the running of the bulls, in which Charlie's father finds himself forced into a tight spot by an angry sharp-horned beast. With a certain dry wit, Charlie describes visiting the open-air market, eating snails, hunting for mushrooms and even seeing horses flown through the air via helicopter during a treacherous flood. Ancient traditions and festivals keep things lively and the family even vacations in Spain, where they marvel at Gaud"s architecture. A perfect sequel, liberally illustrated with Gay's good-humored sketches, this middle-grade novel brims with anecdotal entertainment for the earliest of armchair travelers. (Fiction. 8-12)