Little Blog on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie?

Great book. Horrible idea for a vacation!

Genevieve Welsh has a nice, normal, regular summer all planned out. That is, until her mom signs the family up for Camp Frontier, a theme vacation that promises its guests the “thrill” of living like 1890s pioneers. And even though she’s forced to surrender all her modern possessions, Gen manages to secretly keep in touch with her friends back home, regaling them with all the horrible day to day details of life on this “Little Hell on the Prairie.”

In truth, frontier living isn’t all bad. There’s a cute guy named Caleb who lives in the next clearing, and who knew Gen would prove to be so good at churning butter? Besides, by the time Gen’s friends turn her stories into the most popular blog on the internet, Gen’s got more important things to worry about–like finding a way to keep her family from failing the frontier competition, and trying to keep the resident “Nellie Olson” from stealing Caleb. Yet just when it seems Gen might pull through the summer in one piece, someone gets a hold of her blog–someone determined to interview the girl behind the nationwide blogging sensation–and perhaps in the process ruin the best vacation Gen has ever had.

Excerpt:

Does this bonnet make my face look fat?
Before I knew it, Betsy had me out of my jean shorts, my chucks, the Yosemite T-shirt I’d bought at Urban Outfitters, and into more clothes than I would normally wear in a week. A tank top thing she called a bib, a petticoat which is a kind of skirt you wear underneath your other skirt, pantaloons which are pants you wear instead of underwear–they are open in the back so you can go to the bathroom without pulling them down–wool tights under everything, and over everything a long wool dress that weighed as much as my Algebra textbook. Betsy lovingly pointed out the double stitching on the seams, the rickrack bib work, the puffs at the sleeves.