Chuck and Lori live on a farm with their grandparents, Gram andPop. Chuck is overweight, incompetent in farm work, and teased mercilessly by classmates. Lori is confident, active in extracurricular activities and respected by her peers. Their mother began a career as a motivational speaker after their father's accidental death and as a result has been more away from home than at it. The relationship among the three is strained and distant which only seems to worsen when Mom invites the two to join her for the first time on one of her speaking tours. But by trip'send, all have learned more about how the death has affected each of them and each come to a better understanding of each other.

Takeoff and landings is a very emotional story. It is about a mother and her kids and how their relationship works. The mother isn’t home for most of the time because she flies around the country giving motivational speeches to everyone. So soon her children forget about her mother. So to make it up to them, she brought her 2 biggest children along for a trip of hers. This trip changed everything, lots of secrets were revealed and problems are caused and fixed.

I recommend this book to children from 8 to 12. It is somewhat a sad story but I think they would still like it.

Chuck and Lori almost never see their mother. She is always traveling, speaking all over the country. This time Mom is taking the two oldest children with her. Everything changes. Mom and Lori learn something about Chuck and the dead father who used to eat ice cream with Chuck. ( )

An overweight, timid fifteen-year-old boy and his popular fourteen-year-old sister begin to overcome their guilt over their father's death and reconnect with each other and their emotionally-distant mother when they accompany her on a two-week speaking tour. ( )

A simplistic, but endearing story of a mother trying to reconnect with her two teeange children - Lori and Chuck. Thier mother, who constantly travels for a living, takes them on her next trip - to cities through the US. They learn more about thier mom, thier dead father and each other. ( )