Book review: On the Road to Find Out

In terms of participation rates, female runners have outstripped their male counterparts in recent years. Yet, while there seem to be certain books that every serious male runner has perused, such as John Parker’s Once a Runner, there has been a deficit in running literature featuring a female protagonist. Recommended for female youth readers, Rachel Toor’s On the Road to Find Out, helps to fill this void, offering timeless wisdom through a playful to a genre of runners that often go overlooked – teenage females. Often these readers are in the midst of their own self discovery that life (and running) isn’t about being perfect, it’s about being a little bit better than you were before – not just in a physical way. On the Road to Find Out, is the female equivalent to David Carroll’s novel, Ultra, which was aimed at an audience of young teenage males toying with the world of distance running. Readers who enjoy Sarah Mlynowski’s young adult novels, or those who are possibly embarking on their own athletic pursuits, will find a friend in Toor’s protagonist, Alice.

When Alice, a quirky high school senior with perfectionist tendencies and a pet rat named Walter, is rejected from her number one choice of college, she thinks her dreams are over. So she does what so many of us have and makes a New Year’s resolution to change her life: “I am going to start running.” Far from the quick fix to all her problems, running proves to be hard at the beginning. After her first short jaunt, she returns to her room to tell Walter, “Maybe I should have picked something easier, like, I don’t know, learning to juggle razor blades. Or trying to solve Fermat’s last theorem.” Throughout the novel, Alice navigates testing her physical abilities in conjunction with navigating her relationships with her parents, best friend and the cute boy she met on the trails.

Good-hearted, funny and sometimes a tad annoying, Alice is a uncertain teen true to form and one cannot help but root for her as she finds her way, whether it be through fighting with her mother or her first kiss with her crush, whose name (of course) is Miles.

As summer dawns around us and school will soon be out, which means more down time for many youth, On the Road to Find Out, is a great option for summer reading. For parents who run and are hoping to find a way to get their children involved in the sport, Rachel Toor’s book opens the conversation to discussion of the support of the running community and the opportunities to discover the strength in yourself and others.