In this remarkable and moving memoir the author relates the startling boyhood he spent traveling across 1950s America with his restless parents before interstate highways were invented, bumping into reality at every turn. It abounds in adventure and nostalgia as though Tom Sawyer and Kevin Arnold of "The Wonder Years" were combined in one boy leaving a trail of shenanigans from coast to coast. His encounters with strange landscapes, curious people, and dubious caretakers dangle lessons in life for his taking, and sometimes leaving. When his parents abandon him on a lonely highway at six years...

"If you live on the road long enough eventually you are likely to see a boy erupt in flames." So begins the opening lines of Joel Everett Harding's book "Vagabond Boy: Memoir of a Youth's Journey Through a Heartland of Chaos." This remarkable true-adventure memoir presents readers with an unusual story of childhood self-discovery and perseverance told through the lens of a boy as he struggles to overcome a turbulent youth spent traveling throughout 1950s America with his restless parents before interstate highways were invented. The family's wandering path leads through a palette of...