Journey to an 800 Number

The Camel-Keeper's Son

Maxmillian (also known as Bo) Stubbs's mother has just married a very rich man. Bo is looking forward to moving into his stepfather's big house and attending the snooty Fortnum School in the fall. Everything about Bo's new life will be first class, just like his new navy blazer with the Fortnum crest.

While his mother is on her honeymoon, Bo spends a month with his father, Woody, an itinerant camel-keeper who entertains at shopping malls and conventions around the country. Woody is decidedly not first class, and neither is the eccentric cast of characters Bo meets on their travels. But Bo learns a lot from them that isn't taught at Fortnum...about love, loyalty, and the art of pretending -- and that class and first class are not necessarily the same thing.

E.L. Konigsburg is the only author to have won the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year. In 1968, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery Medal and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was named a Newbery Honor Book. Almost thirty years later she won the Newbery Medal once again for The View from Saturday. Among her other acclaimed books are Silent to the Bone, The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, and The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World.

ISBN: 9781416958758
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: June 03, 2008

"The story has [Konigsburg's] usual combination of originality of conception, felicity of style, and suffusion of wit." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review"A grand performance, sparkling with humor." - Publishers Weekly