10 Stories of Road Trips to Read While Your Kids Punch Each Other in the Backseat

by ParentCo. August 09, 2017

road trip books

Are you taking a family road trip this summer? Bring along one of these stories of road trips both real and imagined as your companion. They’ll help drown out the inevitable back seat refrain, “Are we there yet?”

"Driving Miss Norma: One Family’s Journey Saying 'Yes' to Living"

by Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie Liddle

At 90, Norma is diagnosed with cancer. She's given the choice of chemo or a road trip with her son and his partner. Guess what Norma did? Celebrate life.


"Blue Highways – A Journey into America"

by William Least Heat-Moon

A journey along America’s backroads accompanied by the Native American author’s musings about "those little towns that get on the map – if they get on at all – only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill."


"On the Road"

by Jack Kerouac

This novel is the heart of the Beat movement. Two friends take a cross-country road trip to search for meaning in life.


"Travels with Charley in Search of America"

by John Steinbeck

The author was 58 when he set out with his French poodle, Charley, “o hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light.”


"The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America"

by Bill Bryson

A humorous tale of leaving Des Moines, Iowa, on a journey that takes the author across 38 states in search of his lost youth.


"Angels: A Novel"

by Denis Johnson

A novel on the fringe about a runaway wife, two kids, and an ex-Navy man, ex-husband, and ex-con riding a Greyhound Bus cross-country.


"Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan"

by Will Ferguson

The author hitchhikes 1,800 miles north through Japan following the Cherry Blossom Front (Sakura Zensen).


"Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam"

by Andrew X. Pham

A book about a search for cultural identity, this is the tale of Pham’s year-long solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam following the suicide of his sister.


"A Short Ride in the Jungle: The Ho Chi Minh Trail by Motorcycle"

by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

Setting out from Hanoi on an aging Honda Cub, Bolingbroke-Kent spent two months riding 2,000 miles through the mountains and jungles of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, weathering multiple breakdowns and challenging roads.


"Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing"

by Erika Lopez

This one is for the girls. Savor this rebellious graphic novel about a girl on a motorcycle traveling across the U.S.




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