The Car (Hardcover, Turtleback School & Library ed.)

Fourteen-year-old Terry Anders has been abandoned by his parents. He has no choice but to go on, and he begins by assembling pieces of a kit car from his father's garage. When he finishes the car known as "the Cat, " Terry sets out from Cleveland to Portland to search for an uncle he hardly knows. Along the way Terry picks up a wandering Vietnam vet who ultimately guides him on a journey of discovery and survival.