The Only Girl in the Car Bookworm and dreamer, Kathy was a young girl with a tender heart, an adventurer’s spirit, and a child’s terrible confusion about her proper place in the world. As the oldest daughter in a family of six children, she seemed trapped in her role as Big Sister and Mommy’s Helper. Then, one day, teetering on the brink of adolescence, hormones surging, she heard someone call her “cheesecake,” and suddenly saw her path. “Cheesecake, jailbait, sex kitten”--the very words seemed to be “doors opening” to a splendid new self. But from the moment she decides to lose her virginity and reels in her prey, a “full-grown man,” fourteen-year-old Kathy is headed for trouble. One cold, raw March night some months later, parked in a car with four boys on the outskirts of her small suburban town, she finds it. Though she could never have foreseen the outcome of that night, the “boys in the car could just as well have been Gypsies foretelling my future,” she writes. Girls who break the rules in small towns like the one she lived in are expected to pay a very high price for their transgressions--and she did. And yet...this young girl, as scrappy a protagonist as any in our literature, manages to transform her fate. The story of how she came to be in that car, and how she stepped out of it forever altered, to be sure, yet not forever damaged, is the theme of this extraordinary coming-of-age tale.

In a coming-of-age memoir, the author describes how her yearning to escape her role as the "Big Sister" and "Mother's Helper" in her family led her into trouble, and the consequences of her rebellion in terms of her life in a small town.

"This is a story of a young girl - the oldest daughter in a Catholic family of six children, with a rebelious older brother, an exhausted mother whose attention Kathy craves, and a glamorous father whom she idolises - struggling to find her proper place in the world. In the spring of her 14th year suddenly 'the earth blossomed with men and boys... they were everywhere', and Kathy sees her path towards power and freedom. Bur girls who break the rules in small towns like hers are expected to pay a high price for their transgressions, and Kathy soon learns the rpice. How she stepped out of that car forever altered, but not forever damaged, and how she learned to fight back after being labelled as a slut, insulted and ostrcised in her own neighbourhood, is also part of her story. Always aware that her ambitions were bigger and more complicated that the suburbs she grew up in, Kathy was determined to come through and to transform her life."

A guide to automobile ownership and maintenance discusses what kind of car to buy, safety, inspection, fuel efficiency, avoiding theft, emergency supplies, basic tools, important car parts, and how to deal with mechanics.

"Maintain your ride, think like a mechanic, get down and dirty under the hood"--from cover.

Otto loves cars more than anything else in the world. He plays with cars, he dreams about cars, . . . he even eats cars (his favorite cereal is Wheelies). But that all changes when he awakes one morning to find that he has somehow turned into a car.Otto soon realizes that there is a downside to actually becoming his favorite thing. While the rest of his friends get to play and draw, Otto can only honk and sputter. Will Otto ever be able to switch gears and go back to being a boy?

There are 15 million women drivers in the UK, yet so often they can feel at a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with the male-dominated motor industry. The solution has generally been seen as to call upon a male partner or family member for help. However, many women don't have a car-savvy bloke easily to hand - and would prefer to be more independent anyway. This is where The Girls' Car Handbookcomes in. A vital reference book, it is packed with useful information designed to give women greater confidence when tackling every aspect of motoring from getting a good deal when buying a car, personal safety when driving, handling accidents and breakdowns, tips for greener motoring and much, much more.