5 March 2015 NO PARKING AT THE END TIMES by Bryan Bliss, Greenwillow, February 2015, 272p., ISBN: 978-0-06-227541-7

“Chapter six and verse eleven

If you want to get to Heaven

You’ve got to ask the man who owns the Property

Ya gotta dance your dance

And do your act

And get His Big Attention that’s a natural-born fact”

-- Todd Rundgren, “Eastern Intrigue” (1975)

“I am not surprised this is where we found them, but I cannot square it in my mind. When would’ve they realized it had been hours since they’d seen us? That the city had gone dark and--oh no!--their children are sitting on the sidewalk. Of course, they wouldn’t know about the van [which has disappeared]. Because they were here. Like always.

“We’re supposed to be the irresponsible ones--not them. We’re supposed to be the ones who make bad decisions and stare at the floor while they explain how our choices will affect our future. How will they be able to tell us to do anything ever again?”

I suspect that many discussions of NO PARKING AT THE END TIMES will focus on the religious aspects of the tale. Teen twins Abigail and Aaron are now unwilling residents of the streets of San Francisco thanks to their parents. Their father sold their home and all of their stuff back in North Carolina. The family traveled across the country in an old van to be near San Francisco preacher Brother John who’s been preaching the imminent end of the world. The van has been their home.

The story, told from Abigail’s point of view, begins after Brother John’s prophecy fails to materialize. The moment has come and the world hasn’t ended. Yet day after day, the twins are fending for themselves while their parents continue to spend their time with Brother John. The twins’ father, who’d given Brother John all the family’s money, is clearly under the influence of the preacher.

All sorts of influences can lead to parents shirking their responsibilities toward their children. Many in previous generations complained about absentee fathers addicted to their jobs. (Think about Mr. Banks all jazzed about totting up a balanced book, a thousand ciphers neatly in a row.) Alcohol has forever been an all-too-common cause of terrible parenting and drugged up parenting has taken its place beside the booze. Plenty of parents spend their time looking for new partners, ignoring the kids they had with former partners. Even the TV is a drug of choice for many parents.

This, to me, is the essence of NO PARKING AT THE END TIMES: how so many people have kids and then neglect them in favor of addictions to one thing or another.

I was drawn to NO PARKING AT THE END TIMES because I live in San Francisco and spend lots of time in Golden Gate Park, where much of the story takes place. I was grabbed by the story because of the excellent characterization of Abigail and her twin Aaron. Aaron is a true nonbeliever and Abigail is torn between the ideas of her skeptic brother and her believer parents. She’s a healthy, intelligent adolescent who wants to believe that her parents are doing the right thing. But she also trusts her twin brother who has been sneaking out of the van at night and is trying to figure some way for the two of them to escape their parents and return to North Carolina.

Most every adolescent either lives in a survival story with parents who are addicted to something, or knows friends and schoolmates who are trying to survive such parents. NO PARKING AT THE END TIMES is an all-too-real look at a pair of such kids.

Richie Partington, MLIS

Richie's Pickshttp://richiespicks.pbworks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/richie.partington

Moderatorhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/