Author: Kate O'Shaughnessy
Genre: realistic fiction
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Rating:
Summary (provided by publisher): 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?
My opinion: There are a lot of elements of this book that we could discuss. Most important is the relationship between Fern and her mother, of course. The dynamic between them informs a great deal of the plot. The same could be said for the mother and her relationship with adults in her life. As her history is revealed we come to understand how her relationships lead her to living on the Ranch. It's all quite thoughtfully and carefully laid out. But I'm most interested in Fern herself. From the book's opening we see how Dr. Ben manipulates his followers. We can see and understand the toxicity of their environment. So Fern's insistence on returning to the Ranch is pretty clearly "wrong" to the reader. We know she's making choices that won't benefit her. But she is a consistent and empathetic character. Even as we understand that her decisions are wrong we can see why she makes them, why they are the logical choices for her. It's quite skillfully done and opens up an avenue for discussion with young readers. It's a great opportunity to talk about how environment and experience color perception and may contribute to helping young readers become more empathetic.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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