Naomi Milliner (Children's Literature)
Harlan Q. Stank, rebellious, wise-cracking teenage son of preacher Harlan P. Stank, is about to have a life-changing experience. Ironically, it is due to someone else’s death. After a religion-based parting of the ways with his fanatical father, Harlan Q. has been living and working at a funeral parlor. When he comes across the body of his grandfather, Harlan O., the corpse is as unexpected as it is unfamiliar: Gramps left home twenty years earlier, before Harlan Q. made his debut. Gramps’ death sets off a strange course of events, resulting in a father-son road trip (complete with corpse-in-coffin) from Texas to Las Vegas. Along the way, they pick up nineteen-year-old Warrior, a would-be actor, who happens to be another misunderstood preacher’s son. Warrior’s own search for religion and understanding changes the dynamic between Harlans P. and Q., causing them to examine their own relationship. For awhile, this only exacerbates their problems, leading Harlan Q. to steal and ultimately lose their sizeable inheritance. While in Vegas, Harlan Q. also visits Long Gone Daddy, the popular bar his grandpa co-owned and loved--and where he kept an ongoing, long-distance scrapbook of Harlan Q.’s goings-on from birth on up. In the end, even though the inheritance is gone, Harlans P. and Q. are much richer, having rediscovered each other. Although their reconciliation is predictable, it is also satisfying. Hemphill’s wry humor and likeable characters make this an overall enjoyable trip. Warning: Harlan Q.’s irreverence may be more offensive than funny to devout readers. 2006, Front Street/Boyds Mills Press, $16.95. Ages 13 to 16.

Augusta Scattergood (Children's Literature)
Harlan Q. Stank does not look like his granddaddy one bit. He knows this the first time he sees him, laid out on the prep table at the local funeral home. Having run off from his Bible-thumping preacher dad who would not tolerate a Doubting Thomas in the family, the fourteen-year-old now works and lives at that funeral parlor. But his grandfather was a fun-loving man whose dying forces Harlan Q. to reconnect with his dad, even if it is on a road trip to collect their inheritance. That chromed-up Cadillac Eldorado his grandfather left in Las Vegas speaks to Harlan Q. who sees the adventure as a way to escape the wrath of his father. The preacher has a different plan. He will take the inheritance money to start his Praise-the-Lord radio show. Forced by the terms of the will to travel to Las Vegas, they speed along the highway with the grandfather’s ripening corpse in the back of their station wagon. Along the way, father and son encounter one bump in the road after another. A hitchhiker headed for fame and fortune as an actor, a shady lawyer, a church family’s goddess of a teenage daughter who did not pay attention in Sunday School--all add spice and complexity. But father and son learn from each other and the cast of characters they meet. This is Hemphill’s first novel, and she knows how to tell a story. A good choice for the sometimes overlooked younger end of the YA spectrum, with perfect details and a funny, appealing teenage boy trying to find his way. 2006, Boyds Mills Press, $16.95. Ages 13 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 9))
It's the dead body of his grandfather that Harlan sees on the porcelain table in the morgue where he lives and works to escape confrontation with his evangelistic preacher father, Harlan P. Never having seen Grandfather Harlan O before, Harlan Q decides to head home and see how the family will react. His pompous father (who refers to himself as we) is intrigued when Harlan Q makes a case for achieving greater glory to God if they drive Grandfather's body to his home in Las Vegas to fulfill the terms of his will. The hook is that Harlan P will inherit enough to have his own radio ministry. While poking some fun at the extreme religiosity of Harlan P's faith and other foibles, Hemphill nevertheless manages to create characters that fit into the Texas small-town atmosphere and the lively worldliness of Vegas. The road trip doesn't go as planned, nor does the memorial service, but Harlan learns about himself and how much his father loves him along the way. Wryly funny, this first novel relies a bit too much on hillbilly diction and unusual events, but Hemphill is still a writer with promise. 2006, Front Street/Boyds Mills, 176p, $16.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 13 up. © 2006 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review, May 2006 (Vol. 40, No. 3))
This wild, funny story will be all the more amusing to those who can laugh at religious fundamentalism. It all starts with a body in a funeral home. Harlan Q lives there, having run away from his ever-judgmental preacher father who lives across town. The body turns out to be Harlan Q's grandfather, who ran away many years before and made a life in Las Vegas. He had come back to meet his grandson and perhaps reconcile with his son, but died in a local motel before that could happened. His will stipulates that he must be buried in Las Vegas if his family wants to collect the inheritance. So Harlan Q and his father take the body of the grandfather (boxed up) across the country to Las Vegas. They pick up a companion on the way, Warrior, another son of a preacher, who is on his way to Hollywood to be an actor. Warrior contributes his loving, slightly wacky take on things as the road trip continues. They finally arrive in Las Vegas and find the successful bar owned by the grandfather, his longtime lady companion who now has inherited the bar, and the dishonest lawyer who will try to get a share of any inheritance money. The preacher of course considers Las Vegas literally sin city; he only contemplates the inheritance because in his vanity he wants to start a gospel radio show--this is an idea Harlan Q promotes just so he can get to Las Vegas and see something of the wider world. All those who enjoy humorous road sagas will enjoy Long Gone Daddy. The problems between fathers and sons are exaggerated for humor, but in essence they are reality-based and easily recognizable. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS--Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2006, Front Street, 174p., $16.95. Ages 12 to 18.

Donna Steffan (Library Media Connection, November/December 2006)
Set in small town USA in the early 1970s, this first novel tells the story of Harlan Q's trek down Route 66 with his Bible-thumping father, a Hollywood bound Zen-minded teenage hitchhiker, and the ripening corpse of his estranged grandfather. This road trip sets the stage for encountering and resolving life's conflicts between the wrath of a single-minded preacher and the escape mechanisms used by his son and his grandfather before him. Through a debilitating flat tire, a Vegas-style funeral, dealings with a shyster lawyer, and a covert trip to grandpa's past bar, Harlan Q learns to understand and forgive his preacher father, Harlan P, and more importantly Harlan P learns to understand his father's actions and feelings. From the first scene in the basement of the local mortuary to the lights and tables of a casino, to the welcoming living room back home, this story has enough excitement and tribulations to interest most middle and high school readers. Some may be troubled by a young teenage girl climbing into Harlan Q's bed by mistake and by the gaiety of the Las Vegas nightlife. In the end, this is a terrific, thought-provoking, introspective look at intergenerational strife and the struggles for appreciation and understanding by each character. Recommended. 2006, Front Street (Boyds Mills Press), 176pp., $17.95 hc. Ages 12 to 16.

Paulette Clark (The ALAN Review, Fall 2006 (Vol. 34, No. 1))
This was a delightful story that let the reader feel the emotions and battles of a teenage boy trying to understand his thoughts and life--separate from the thinking of his father, the preacher. His struggles bring out the bitter anger within himself when he tries to express his feelings and opinions. Harlan Q, the protagonist, begins his relationship with his paternal grandfather on the cold, mortuary embalming table. While he and his father transport the grandfather’s body to its final resting place in Las Vegas, they encounter a young philosopher, Warrior, who gently opens the minds of Harlan Q and his father. The journey unravels the mystery of the grandfather and the world to Harlan Q. He experiences a world outside his hometown and realizes his own vulnerability. Category: Fathers-Son Relationships/Religions. YA--Young Adult. 2006, Front Street, 169 pp., $16.95. Ages young adult.Junction City, KS

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2006)
When Grandfather dies, Harlan Q, his zealous preacher father, and a hitchhiking hippie named Warrior drive his body in the back of a station wagon to its resting place in Las Vegas. In this emotional story of father/son conflict, the characters may lean toward stereotypes, but the unique plot and vividly painted setting give this book a fresh feel. Category: Older Fiction. 2006, Front, 175pp, 16.95. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.

Walter Hogan (VOYA, December 2006 (Vol. 29, No. 5))
Harlan Q. Stank is the son of Reverend Harlan P. Stank and grandson of the long-absent Harlan O. Stank. The three are known as Harlan O, Harlan P, and Harlan Q, respectively. Annoyed by his Bible-thumping father's constant preaching, young Harlan Q has recently moved in with the local funeral director and his kindly wife. Unexpectedly the remains of Harlan O, the "long gone daddy" of the title, arrive at the funeral parlor. The old fellow's will leaves a bundle of cash and a Cadillac convertible to his heirs, but it stipulates that he must be buried in Las Vegas. Eager to get away from "pitiful old Bean's Creek," the rural, dusty Texas town where he has spent all of his fourteen years, Harlan Q employs considerable ingenuity in persuading his stern father to transport the body to Las Vegas to complete the conditions of Harlan O's will. The ensuing road trip across the Southwest provides plenty of opportunities for the strict father and rebellious son to thrash out their differences. Along the way, they pick up Warrior, a Hollywood-bound aspiring actor whose laid-back philosophy gives both uptight Harlans food for thought. Finally glittering Las Vegas, the destination of their pilgrimage, richly fulfills all of Harlan Q's dreams and all his God-fearing father's nightmares. Some surprising twists and turns force both father and son to question their assumptions and renegotiate their relationship. Regional flavor, quirky humor, and strong father-son dynamics are the elements of this entertaining debut novel. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P M J (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2006, Front Street, 174p., $16.95. Ages 11 to 15.