Route 66 kids are the generation that
grew up in America after World War II, experiencing childhood in the
innocent 1950s but coming to adulthood in the turbulent 1960s.
Route 66 Kids are also the "children" of novelist Michael Lund, each
book a product of memory and imagination.
"Route 66, with
its endless stream of traffic and modest roadside motels and
restaurants, provides the backdrop [to his stories]. . . . His
characters move from their small stretch of Route 66 into the world
beyond."
--Nancy Beardsley, Voice of
America, June 9, 2004.
Route 66 Chapel (2006)
When a landmark church is slated for destruction in
Fairfield, Missouri, a group of business owners, joining with a
handful of newcomers, mount an eccentric campaign to save it.
Route 66 Chapel is an important building, but it's also crucial to the
town's identity as a symbol of spiritual dimensions that give meaning
to individual lives and to the community.
--"the heartfelt
(and all too common) story of people trying to save their fleeting
heritage." Route 66 Federation News
Route 66 to Vietnam: A Draftee's
Story (2004) --also available as an audio book.
After September 11, 2001, Route 66 Michael Lund
found that the emerging War on Terror recalled aspects of the Cold War
in the 1950s. He came to believe that his experience in Vietnam
offered clues to the demands a new generation of America's youth would
have to face in the 21st century. Route 66 to Vietnam traces the
fate of Mark Landon and other children from Growing Up on Route 66
through Southeast Asia and on to prosperous--if troubled--times.
--"an engaging
tale that flashes back to the narrator’s Vietnam War tour."
The VVa Veteran
Route 66 Spring (July 2004)
The lives of four young Missourians are
changed when a bottle comes to the surface of one of the state's many
natural springs. Inside is a letter written by a girl a dozen
years after the Civil War. Lucy Rivers Johns ' epistle
contains a sad story of family failure and a powerful plea for
help. This message from the last century crystallizes the
frustrations of Janet Masters, Freddy Sills, Louis Clark, and Roberta
Green, another group of Route 66 kids. Their response to the past
charts a bold path into the future, a path inspired by the Mother Road
itself.
"Lund's characters . . . bring this
fascinating and beautiful part of the country to life."--Route
66 Magazine
Miss Route 66 (January
2004)--also available as an audio book
Susan Bell tells the story of her candidacy in
an annual beauty contest. Now married and with teenage children
in St. Louis, she recounts her youthful adventure in this small town
along "America's Highway." At the same time, she plans a return
to Fairfield in order to right injustices she feels were done to some
young contestants in the Miss Route 66 Pageant. Throughout this
journey she wonders what, if anything, was feminine in the "Mother
Road" of the 1950s.
"Lund does an
excellent job of presenting Susan Bell, both as a girl faced with
a dilemma, and as a woman who has moved on from the experience--or has
she? . . . leaves you wondering where the next book in the series will
lead."--Route 66 Magazine
A Left-hander on Route 66 (2003)
Twenty years after the fact, left-hander Hugh Noone appeals a
wrongful conviction that detoured him from "America's Main Street" and
put him in jail. But revealing the details of the past and effecting a
resolution of his case mean a dramatic rearrangement of his world,
including troubled relationships with three women: Linda
Roy, Patty Simpson, and Karen Murphy.
"As the
third entry in the Route 66 series A
Left-Hander on Route 66 continues to impress with the feelings
of the times, the places and the people of the small fictional town of
Fairfield, MO."--Route 66 Magazine
Route 66 Kids (2002)
A sequel of sorts to Growing up on Route 66, this novel
is a Babyboomers' coming-of-age story, reminding us that children
always wonder about their origin. When kids asked "Where do I
come from?" in the 1950s, they were really asking about sex, the
biggest mystery for those growing up in an age of American innocence.
"Babyboomers
coming of age in a small midwestern town on Route 66. It's a
decade later but it reads like the 'Summer of '42.' An extremely
heartwarming and nostalgic look at young people's angst during this age
of wonder." Route 66 Federation News
Growing up on Route 66
(2000)
Set in a Missouri small town along "America's
Main Street," this story takes place in a neighborhood known to the
children growing up there as the "Circle." That time and place
are remembered by the novel's narrator as ideal, but closer scrutiny
repeatedly--and often humorously--complicates this innocent picture.
"funny stories of adolescence in the
1950's"--Missouri Life
Michael Lund,
author of the Route 66 Novel Series, grew up in Rolla, Missouri and now
teaches college composition and literature in Virginia.
Additional information about the Route
66 Novel Series is available online at http://route66kids.com