Little Blog on the Prairie

by Cathleen Davitt Bell

Overview

Camp Frontier promises families the "thrill" of living like 1890s pioneers. Gen will be thrilled if she survives the summer stuck in a cabin with her family and no modern amenities. But ever the savvy teen, Gen sneaks in a phone and starts texting about camp life. Turns out, there are some good points-like the cute boy who lives in the next clearing. But when her texts go viral as a blog and a TV crew arrives, Gen realizes she may have just ruined the best vacation she's ever had.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781599907284
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/24/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

CATHLEEN DAVITT BELL's first book for young readers was Slipping. She received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College and her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. She lives with her husband and two children.
www.cathleendavittbell.com

CATHLEEN DAVITT BELL's first book for young readers was Slipping. She received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College and her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and two children. www.cathleendavittbell.com

Editorial Reviews

To her great dismay, 13-year-old Gen is spending her entire summer with her family at a frontier camp, where they must re-enact life from 1890, living without technology, growing their own food, tending a cow and chickens, and working on a project to better the farm. It's a fun premise that leaves Bell (Slipping) ample room for physical comedy, while touching on themes of family and the (dis)advantages of modern life. Gen holds onto her sanity by sending secret text messages to her best friends (“I am standing in the middle of a cornfield. I am holding a hoe.... [W]e are farmers now”), which they turn into a blog that attracts national attention. Cute Caleb, a fellow camper, is a welcome distraction for Gen, though he seems interested in Nora, the daughter of the couple that runs the camp, and the two girls butt heads. Gen's growing appreciation for the simple life is predictable (though she never entirely drinks the Kool-Aid—make that warm cow's milk) and the reconciliation between Gen and Nora feels contrived, but it's still a lively journey with empathetic characters. Ages 12-up. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 5–8—Imagine it is 1890. No iPods, no cell phones, no jeans or tank tops, no electricity, and no indoor plumbing. This is the life that Gen Welsh has to endure for the whole summer, since her mother has decided that the family's vacation will be at a frontier-living fantasy camp near Laramie, WY. When they arrive, all modern conveniences are taken away, but Gen is granted her one wish: Clearasil. Secretly she has hidden her new cell phone in the product's box, and uses it to text her friends back home. They use her messages to start a blog, which takes off and gets media attention. Meanwhile, back at camp, a first romance and a good, clean girl rivalry are bubbling among the milking of cows and clearing of forest. As the families make their way through a difficult season, the teens discover their strengths and weaknesses. This fast read is humorous and insightful, with realistic characters that are refreshingly well rounded. Bell has captured a 13-year-old's voice, making Gen's unlikely situation feel very real. A solid choice for collections serving tweens—Angela J. Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, NS, Canada

School Library Journal