I wish I could remember where I first heard about the book \u201cThe Wrong Way Home,\u201d by Kate O\u2019Shaughnessey.<\/p>\n
I was so intrigued by the premise, I flat-out bought it instead of searching for it in my library or online sources.<\/p>\n
Considering it was a Newbery Honor winner last year, I have discovered this story a little late, but no matter. Books don\u2019t spoil like the lettuce in your crisper drawer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Wrong Way Home\u201d starts in The Ranch, a place in upstate New York where 12-year-old Fern has lived with her mother since she was 6. Fern loves it here.<\/p>\n
The Ranch\u2019s stated purpose is to \u201clive lightly on the Earth,\u201d which includes not making much waste or being a consumer of man-made goods (the residents have no actual money).<\/p>\n
This community is completely off the grid; they grow their own food, make their own clothes, and do not allow any drugs, junk food, devices (iPads or cellphones) or even novels.<\/p>\n
It is run by Dr. Ben. The residents even count on Dr. Ben to cure them if they become sick. Dr. Ben is strict, but Fern likes this, because before they came to The Ranch, her life with her mom had been very unstable.<\/p>\n
Shortly after we meet all the characters on The Ranch, however, Fern\u2019s mom spirits her, under the cover of darkness, away from it and across the country to northern California.<\/p>\n
Fern thinks her mom has lost her mind.<\/p>\n
To Fern, The Ranch is the best place they\u2019ve ever lived, and she is outraged to be taken from it.<\/p>\n
She spends a large chunk of the story figuring out how to contact Dr. Ben and get him to come rescue her.<\/p>\n
Still, a regular (new) life also goes on. Her mom gets a job. Fern goes to school. She begins to see how much she doesn\u2019t know, including who George Washington is or how to send a letter or use a computer.<\/p>\n
Fern mostly resists her new life, insisting on using the name she adopted when she joined The Ranch (her birth name was Frankie).<\/p>\n
But she also makes a good friend and finds some good teachers, including Mr. Carlson, her science teacher.<\/p>\n
Occasionally, the reader sees Fern learn something that contradicts the teaching at The Ranch and shakes her a bit in her understanding of life there.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, she enlists the help of several adults, most notably a local private investigator, to find The Ranch\u2019s mailing address. The PI tries to suggest to Fern that The Ranch is, in fact, a cult, and Dr. Ben is a bad man.<\/p>\n
Fern is outraged that the investigator would suggest such a thing, but we also see Fern start to doubt some of Dr. Ben\u2019s teachings. I will not give away the ending, but I will say it had me on the edge of my seat!<\/p>\n
While there is something appealing about Fern\u2019s experience of The Ranch as a utopia, by the end, it\u2019s clear that while \u201cliving lightly on the Earth\u201d is a wonderful ideal, there are many sketchy and dangerous things about Dr. Ben and The Ranch.<\/p>\n
Given its themes, suspense and unreliable narrator (Fern), \u201cThe Wrong Way Home\u201d is a very good book for older middle-grade readers.<\/p>\n
As an added bonus, in my internet wanderings relating to this book, I stumbled on a very fun YouTube site run by one of my favorite authors of middle-grade nonfiction, Steve Sheinkin.<\/p>\n