The Wrong Way Home
by Kate O'Shaughnessy (Author)
Twelve-year-old Fern believes she's living a noble life--but what if everything she's been told is a lie? This is a huge-hearted story about a girl learning to question everything--and to trust in herself.
Fern's lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch's leader, Dr. Ben. So when Fern's mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn't believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving.
Suddenly thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world, Fern thinks only about how to get home again. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place--the library, a friend from school, the ocean--and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just...not true. Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben's vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?
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Publishers Weekly
A white 12-year-old slowly reacclimates after fleeing a futurist cult in this heartening tale by O'Shaugnessy (Lasagna Means I Love You). After living for six years on the Ranch--a self-sustaining, off-the-grid farm in New York helmed by the ill-tempered Dr. Ben--Fern Silvana's "world cracks open" when she and her mother escape against Fern's wishes to a coastal town near San Francisco. Initially, Fern is furious and desperate to find a way back to the Ranch. But as she gets to know the people of Driftaway Beach--especially Scottish and South Asian American classmate Eddie and kind tea shop owner Babs--and becomes reacquainted with pleasures and technologies banned on the Ranch (dancing, fantasy fiction, K-Pop, medicine, sugar, TV), Fern's resolve wavers. Wistful first-person narration probes Fern's conflicting emotions as she fumbles for a sense of belonging and struggles to think for herself. Driven by a growing self-awareness that she can choose who and what she believes, this is a moving portrait of a girl undergoing drastic change and fitting the broken pieces of her world together to find her place in it. Supporting characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 10-up. Agent: Pete Knapp, Park & Fine Literary. (Apr.)
Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.School Library Journal
Gr 3-7--Twelve-year-old Fern's life takes a sharp turn when she and her mother sneak out of the Ranch, an off-the-grid farm in New York that has been her home for the last six years. Even though the ranch might be considered a cult and her mom says its leader Dr. Ben is dangerous, it's the home that Fern remembers most. The two escape to Driftaway Beach, CA, living in a motel where her mother works. When Fern becomes desperate to return to the only life she knows, she makes a long-term plan to return to the Ranch. But as time goes on Fern finds friendship in Eddie and Babs. She discovers that she loves science and learning about new things. Now that she has a taste for this world, she is conflicted when she thinks about returning home. This coming-of-age story centers a girl trying to decide what is right as she struggles to change from one culture to another. The first-person narrative is believable and thought-provoking as Fern reconsiders everything she's thought to be true. VERDICT A unique story and welcome addition to the library for fans of contemporary middle grade fiction.--Nancy Hawkins
Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review ★ The suspenseful story is immediately intriguing, skillfully conveying the high-stakes situation and effortlessly drawing the audience in. A tremendous testament to the power in plotting your own course.
—Booklist, starred review ★ Lovingly crafted with depth and compassion. Nuance suffuses this story of discovery, as Fern's blind faith grows tenuous.
— Bulletin, starred review Kate O'Shaughnessy is an extraordinarily talented author whose gift is an innate understanding of the inner life of twelve-year-olds.
—Gennifer Choldenko, Newbery Honor Winner for Al Capone Does My Shirts To leave behind a world that seems totally secure and safe and comfortable, for a world in which you make your own decisions and claim your own life—that is one of our great journeys. In The Wrong Way Home, Fern has to battle her own fear, elaborate illusions, misunderstandings, and the past mistakes of others to get on with that journey—and, dear reader, you will not be able to turn the pages fast enough to see if she makes it. Plan on reading this in one sitting; matters of the human soul don't bear interruption.
—Gary D. Schmidt, Newbery Honor Winner for The Wednesday Wars Young readers will cheer for Fern as she finds the courage to confront the troubling doctrines she has been raised with and reinvent her ideas of home.
—Jacquetta Nammar Feldman, author of Wishing Upon the Same Stars and The Puttermans Are in the House
Don't miss Kate's other books: The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane, and Lasagna Means I Love You.
JUV039070 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Homelessness & Poverty
JUV039010 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Physical & Emotional Abuse
Mothers and daughters
Cults
Adjustment
