CRUISE CONTROL by Terry Trueman
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  10/25/05
    Publisher:  HarperTempest
    Reviewed by:  Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
    Rating:  5 Stars


    I have a confession to make.  I actually wasn't going to start reading CRUISE CONTROL for another week or
    two.  After all, I had just read INSIDE OUT and STUCK IN NEUTRAL in quick succession.  I have a lot of other
    books on my reviewing plate, and I didn't want anyone to think I had a Terry Trueman obsession.  But then I
    decided, "I want to read this book now, I probably do have a Terry Trueman obsession, and no one is going to stop
    me!"  So...that's my story, I'm sticking to it, and now for the story of CRUISE CONTROL...

    This book is billed as the companion book to STUCK IN NEUTRAL, not a sequel.  And for good reason.  This
    book doesn't pick up where SIN leaves off, although I would recommend reading SIN first, if for no other reason
    than to learn the history of Shawn McDaniel and his family.  CRUISE CONTROL is the story of Paul McDaniel,
    older brother to Shawn and sister Cindy, son of a prize-winning poet father who abandoned their family and a
    mother who works hard to take care of her children.

    Paul is fully aware of the unfairness and inconsistencies in his life.  He's the star of the basketball team--his brother is
    a vegetable, confined to his wheelchair and unable to control any of his movements, from blinking his eyelids to
    swallowing his food.  Paul is always angry, even to the point of physically attacking virtual strangers--his brother is
    unable to show any emotion at all, from love to annoyance.  He hates his father for leaving the family--and yet
    wonders what it would be like for him to be a bigger part of it.  Paul's life is, for all accounts and purposes, messed
    up.  As his sister, Cindy, puts it:  "There's no way I'll ever believe that the problems a brother like Shawn
    brings to a family are 'gifts from God.'"

    As Paul discovers that his father might not have left the family due to abandonment, as his feelings of rage turn to
    shame for a secret he's kept way too long, Paul realizes the truth that his mother has long known:  "It's okay to love
    your brother."

    CRUISE CONTROL is Paul's story, and it's just as heartfelt and genuine as Shawn's.  I'm sorry to leave the
    McDaniel family behind, but at least it's with the feeling of love and respect, and not sorrow and shame.
Cruise Control
by Terry Trueman