Episode 241: Suzanne Cruz on her book The Schoolie (January 20, 2026)

In this episode of The Catholic Bookworm, Kiki Latimer interviews Suzanne Cruz on her book The Schoolie: Observations on Life through the Window of a School Bus (January 20, 2026)

Have you ever loved your family deeply and still wondered how any of you survived each other?The Schoolie is a warm, witty, and deeply reflective coming-of-age memoir told through the “window” of a schoolie (the nickname for a converted school bus). In Becca’s big Italian Catholic family, that bus becomes “Camp-a-lot”: part road trip machine, part rolling family circus, part accidental classroom for everything you do not learn at Mass.Inside Camp-a-lot, faith and chaos share the same bench seat.One minute you are having a genuine spiritual moment as the Grand Canyon rolls past in all its glory. The next minute, someone is sticking their head out the window screaming “Help me!” just to watch Mom panic and Dad hit the brakes. One minute you are trying to be holy. The next you are discovering that “urban navigation language” (also known as Dad’s creative profanity) is apparently required to drive a bus-sized beast through America.This is family life as it really is: noisy, loving, ridiculous, and formative.The name Camp-a-lot is no accident. It playfully echoes Camelot, King Arthur’s shining ideal of honor, loyalty, and righteousness. Camelot was beautiful, and yet it still fell. And as Becca grows up and looks back from adulthood, she begins to notice the same pattern closer to home: families can be built with noble intentions, then slowly worn down by human weakness, irresponsibility, spite, and time.Which leads to the question at the heart of this book: If goodness gets torn down so often… why bother building anything at all?The Schoolie answers with the kind of hope that does not deny reality. It offers refreshing, family-oriented humor alongside hard-earned insight, and it lands on a simple truth echoed by Pope John Paul II: you bother because it matters. You love, you create, you try, even when you know life can be messy.Who this book is for

• Readers who love funny, heartfelt family memoirs that still go somewhere meaningful
• Anyone raised with faith, tradition, and big personalities (especially Catholic families)
• Readers who want humour with substance, not trauma for shock value
• Anyone who has ever thought, “My family should come with a user manual”

Why this book is unique

• A converted school bus is not just a setting; it is a brilliant metaphor for growing up
• It blends nostalgic comedy with spiritual reflection (without preaching)
• It captures the universal: sibling chaos, family legends, and the strange holiness of ordinary life
• It tells the truth with warmth, including the kind of laughter you need in a too-serious world

The Schoolie isn’t really about a bus. It is about what carried you then, what shaped you, and what still carries you now: memory, faith, family, and the stubborn decision to keep building even when things fall apart.If you are craving a memoir with heart, meaning, and genuinely refreshing family humor, come aboard. The journey matters.

The Schoolie: Observations on Life through the Window of a School Bus by Suzanne Cruz | En Route Books and Media