THE COLOSSUS OF ROADS

Los Angeles’ infamous traffic scene is a hot mess, and it’s up to 11-year-old Rick Rusek to fix it.

Deep in the San Fernando Valley lives the audacious young problem-solver, poring over maps of LA’s highways and streets to diagnose a way to unclog the county’s traffic woes. Ironically, Rick can’t bear car trips due to an unrelenting case of motion sickness. Just ask his chatty stomach, a cheeseburger-obsessed conversationalist that helps Rick with unknotting the trickiest of ideas. Rick’s chats with his stomach offer one source of reassurance after he finds out that his parents’ catering business, Smotch (roots: Polish food), risks falling into financial troubles due in part to LA’s notorious traffic flow. Convinced that his Snarl Solutions could help alleviate his parents’ problems if only someone in power would listen, Rick joins his neighbor’s Girl Scout group, led by a celebrated street artist with familial ties to the head of LA’s Department of Transportation. Can the “Colossus of Roads” save his parents’ business and lead LA toward a brighter future? Uss’ slice of whimsy teleports readers to the smog-filled, congested streets of Los Angeles and gives them a hearty appreciation for big, improbable ideas. Thanks to a fun cast of eclectic characters, the author manages to temper the story’s more peculiar moments, but it’s her soft mix of humor and insight that steals the spotlight. Though Rick’s neighbors are Latinx, the book’s default seems to be white.

Colossally cool.