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Little Blog on the Prairie
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.
283 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 11, 2010
45 people are currently reading
1164 people want to read
About the author
Cathleen Davitt Bell
4 books124 followersI've hiked on the rocky Italian coastline, used positive visualization to control pain, visited every bowling alley in the Adirondacks, invented my own kind of pasta dish (write and I'll give you the recipe), and am halfway to raising two kids in partnership with a terrific husband. I can tell a pretty mean ghost story, make butter with ingredients from the corner deli, and have just published a book about the most passionate kind of love I can imagine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 337 reviews
July 18, 2011
Exactly ten years ago, PBS was filming Frontier House, a show where three families went to Montana to live in the same conditions as people would have in 1883. I loved that series – it’s the only reality show I’ve ever been able to stand.
Keeping that in mind, you can see why my interest would be piqued by a book entitled Little Blog on the Prairie, which is about Gen Welsh who is forced to go on a family vacation to Frontier Camp, where she, her mother, her father, and her little brother Gavin will live as though it is 1890.
When Gen is told about these summer plans, she is horrified. She whines, cries, and argues until she is finally offered a bribe: a cell phone to be given when she gets home. Gen has wanted a cell phone for ages and finally agrees to go. However, the night before her family leaves, she sneaks downstairs, charges it, & learns to use it. The next day she managed to smuggle it into camp.
As the title suggests, a blog begins when her best friend back home begins to post each text message online in a blog she calls “Little Hell on the Prairie.”
The first thing to go is the family’s normal clothes. Initially, Gen is embarrassed by her prairie girl outfit, but the other teenagers are dressed just as badly, so this does fall on the wayside. She develops a crush on Caleb, another camper, and a dislike of the camp owners’ daughter Nora, who seems determined to make Gen feel like a useless idiot. Additionally, Nora is a rival for the affections of Caleb.
Nora herself is a bit of a tragic figure, while the other kids are there for eight weeks in the summer, she lives with her Neo-Luddite parents on the farm year-round. She’s home-schooled and sees only her parents in the winter. The only friends she makes are the ones in the summer whose families don’t tend to make a second trip.
As the summer moves along, the kids have problems adjusting to life without their own beds let alone their own rooms. They aren’t the only ones though, the adults are finding that their back-to-basics vacation isn’t quite as picturesque as they’d imagined. Everything is a challenge; cooking, weeding, washing, ironing, and to top it off, the mention of a possible bear roaming around has Gen’s father in a panic. I did appreciate that the characters aren’t actively stupid; the mistakes made are more from lack of experience rather than ignorance.
There aren’t a lot of surprises in this book as it goes along. The ending made me think of the end of the first act of Into the Woods when the Narrator declares “And it came to pass, all that seemed wrong was now right, the kingdoms were filled with joy, and those who deserved to were certain to live a long and happy life.”
Bottom-line: I’d suggest this book for the tweens. I’d have probably read this book over and over when I was in sixth grade. However, a lack of sex, drugs, and extreme emotional problems would probably make fans of the Gossip Girl books or fans of the paranormal label this book boring.
Keeping that in mind, you can see why my interest would be piqued by a book entitled Little Blog on the Prairie, which is about Gen Welsh who is forced to go on a family vacation to Frontier Camp, where she, her mother, her father, and her little brother Gavin will live as though it is 1890.
When Gen is told about these summer plans, she is horrified. She whines, cries, and argues until she is finally offered a bribe: a cell phone to be given when she gets home. Gen has wanted a cell phone for ages and finally agrees to go. However, the night before her family leaves, she sneaks downstairs, charges it, & learns to use it. The next day she managed to smuggle it into camp.
As the title suggests, a blog begins when her best friend back home begins to post each text message online in a blog she calls “Little Hell on the Prairie.”
The first thing to go is the family’s normal clothes. Initially, Gen is embarrassed by her prairie girl outfit, but the other teenagers are dressed just as badly, so this does fall on the wayside. She develops a crush on Caleb, another camper, and a dislike of the camp owners’ daughter Nora, who seems determined to make Gen feel like a useless idiot. Additionally, Nora is a rival for the affections of Caleb.
Nora herself is a bit of a tragic figure, while the other kids are there for eight weeks in the summer, she lives with her Neo-Luddite parents on the farm year-round. She’s home-schooled and sees only her parents in the winter. The only friends she makes are the ones in the summer whose families don’t tend to make a second trip.
As the summer moves along, the kids have problems adjusting to life without their own beds let alone their own rooms. They aren’t the only ones though, the adults are finding that their back-to-basics vacation isn’t quite as picturesque as they’d imagined. Everything is a challenge; cooking, weeding, washing, ironing, and to top it off, the mention of a possible bear roaming around has Gen’s father in a panic. I did appreciate that the characters aren’t actively stupid; the mistakes made are more from lack of experience rather than ignorance.
There aren’t a lot of surprises in this book as it goes along. The ending made me think of the end of the first act of Into the Woods when the Narrator declares “And it came to pass, all that seemed wrong was now right, the kingdoms were filled with joy, and those who deserved to were certain to live a long and happy life.”
Bottom-line: I’d suggest this book for the tweens. I’d have probably read this book over and over when I was in sixth grade. However, a lack of sex, drugs, and extreme emotional problems would probably make fans of the Gossip Girl books or fans of the paranormal label this book boring.
November 6, 2010
Predictable ending. Way too many unanswered questions: cell phone tower? no one else found the "electricity bldg"? Is Nora always this mean to her female guests? How do they advertise without e-mail, a web page, modern advertising?
May appeal to tweens, but not serious literature.
May appeal to tweens, but not serious literature.
July 14, 2010
A light hearted yet thoroughly entertaining book. I loved Gen - Bell found the perfect balance between whiny and likable. She's snarky and sarcastic where appropriate, but usually sucks it up and gets on with what needs to be done on the farm - until she takes a short break to text her BFFs back home about her ridiculous summer adventures.
Although Gen is only 13, I think this story will appeal to a wide range of MG and YA readers. Her younger age keeps her thoughts about the cute boy on a totally PG level (when she discovers an illicit 'electricity shack,' her first thought is charging her cell phone, not conspiring to be alone with the guy), but her attitude (a little sarcastic, but mostly sweet, even in the face of unfamiliar farm chores) will keep even teens used to edgier fare reading to see how Gen survives her summer on the farm.
There are some great supporting characters at frontier camp as well. It becomes pretty clear early on that this was the idea of the grown ups, and maybe some of the younger kids don't find it totally unfortunate, but everyone 10-14 thinks the summer is going to totally suck. Ka (short for Kate, rhymes with Saw, as in her favorite movie) is a goth in a recently blended family of perky blondes, adrift without her constant supply of black hair dye to keep her own blonde roots hidden. Also, a couple of the moms just about start a feminist uprising when the owner of the camp tries to keep them from speaking at a weekly meeting (Gen's mom is the first to point out that Wyoming, where the camp is located, had given women the right to vote well before 1890, so she had every right to talk when she wanted).
There's even a mini-lesson slipped in slyly by the end, that will hopefully get readers to think about what sort of privacy they can expect regarding text messages and e-mails.
Although Gen is only 13, I think this story will appeal to a wide range of MG and YA readers. Her younger age keeps her thoughts about the cute boy on a totally PG level (when she discovers an illicit 'electricity shack,' her first thought is charging her cell phone, not conspiring to be alone with the guy), but her attitude (a little sarcastic, but mostly sweet, even in the face of unfamiliar farm chores) will keep even teens used to edgier fare reading to see how Gen survives her summer on the farm.
There are some great supporting characters at frontier camp as well. It becomes pretty clear early on that this was the idea of the grown ups, and maybe some of the younger kids don't find it totally unfortunate, but everyone 10-14 thinks the summer is going to totally suck. Ka (short for Kate, rhymes with Saw, as in her favorite movie) is a goth in a recently blended family of perky blondes, adrift without her constant supply of black hair dye to keep her own blonde roots hidden. Also, a couple of the moms just about start a feminist uprising when the owner of the camp tries to keep them from speaking at a weekly meeting (Gen's mom is the first to point out that Wyoming, where the camp is located, had given women the right to vote well before 1890, so she had every right to talk when she wanted).
There's even a mini-lesson slipped in slyly by the end, that will hopefully get readers to think about what sort of privacy they can expect regarding text messages and e-mails.
August 6, 2016
Little Blog on the Prairie is a light mildly amusing read for tweens. The story of 14yr old Gen and her family at a "back to basics" (1890 basics)family camp is an interesting premise. Most of the characters are portrayed realistically. I was disappointed that the interaction between characters was very shallow. For instance, Gen is force to share a single bed with her little brother, you hear Gen complain but you never hear her brother Gavin complain. There was only a very little discussion of the use of an outhouse, and the story alludes to the difficulties in bathing but never addresses it. The author also never addressed topics such as what does a 15yr old in bloomers do when she gets her period? There are minor injuries, Gen's father gets blisters and open sores from manual labor and her brother gets splinters from gathering wood, but the author never talks at all about how a modern family deals with a lack of medicine.
The omission of depth in the story leaves this appealing mainly to a 12yr old and under audience.
The omission of depth in the story leaves this appealing mainly to a 12yr old and under audience.
July 31, 2013
OK, so I'm so not the demographic at which this book is aimed. I bought it on an intuitional whim. There was something about it that was intriguing. I'm getting ready to embark on a huge reading journey with The Game of Thrones series (that I bought for my daughter KLuna, but bought them for her on our joint Kindle account so I could read them too--so it was kind of a selfish gift I gave her). I needed something to read that was a bit light and fluffy before I headed down the dark pathway of ...Thrones. Kind of like a wine taster does by cleansing the palate before swishing around a more "serious" glass of wine. Little Blog... was going to be that cleansing palate book for me. But the serendipity was it was a pretty tasty "wine" itself. Very fun to be thrown into an adolescent girls mind through her blog. And there were some fairly heavy family issues thrown in there as well. My intuition served me well on this one. Now, on to The Game of Thrones!
July 4, 2012
I picked this book up as a joke because the title and cover were so outrageous I wanted to read a few pages and laugh; however, I kept reading because the writing wasn't making me mad and I wanted to know what happened.
In the beginning it seemed like a terrible idea for a reality show....
But it turned into a nice gentle read about a summer "vacation" gone bad, and the importance of family.
The end even had a nice PSA about being careful about what you text, "...who doesn't know that something you put in a text could end up where you didn't mean for it to go?"...
(Also, the mom decides to go back to school to get an MLIS.)
In the beginning it seemed like a terrible idea for a reality show....
But it turned into a nice gentle read about a summer "vacation" gone bad, and the importance of family.
The end even had a nice PSA about being careful about what you text, "...who doesn't know that something you put in a text could end up where you didn't mean for it to go?"...
(Also, the mom decides to go back to school to get an MLIS.)
July 3, 2011
Well, since I grew up totally a Laura Ingall's fan, I could totally connect with this book. Loved it! I always "thought" I wanted to go back in time in live in those simplistic days. Ha, simplistic it was not. The hard work alone would have killed me. I do love the fact that it teaches you some greater values of life. I think it was a fun read and even my family put up with me reading it aloud to them. I did not add this to my literacy circles this year but I think it would make a fun lit circle book or for sure a shared reading. Since I didn't order extra copies, I think I will use it to share/compare the "Now and Then" and get my students blogging about their experiences with school and connections with their books!!! This book was so me!
March 19, 2025
I am shelving this as both YA and Middle Grade. The protagonist is 13/14 and going into high school in the fall (this book takes place over her summer vacation before high school). This would be a good book for someone who wants to transition from Middle Grade to YA. A bit silly, and the main girl isn’t terribly mature.
June 5, 2010
Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Eighth-grader Genevieve just wants to have a regular summer with her friends, going to the rec-center pool, to soccer camp, and hanging out and talking about cute boys. But when her mother gets the idea that the whole family should go to Camp Frontier, a "resort" in Wyoming where campers pay lots of money to faithfully re-enact the 1890's pioneer experience, Genevieve is far from thrilled. It's not just living without her I-pod, computer and lip gloss that gets her down...she also has to use an incredibly stinky outhouse, deal with killer mosquitos and attacking chickens, and horror of horrors--share a bed with her younger brother!
Her mother promises reluctant Genevieve her own cell phone at the end of the summer if she'll just cooperate for a few months with their little adventure. Little does her mother suspect that Genevieve has secretly hidden the cell phone and is using it to text her friends back home with laugh-out-loud updates on her pioneer experiences. Here's an example:
"Week 1 - Sunday. 2:27 pm. Help! I'm dressed up like an American Girl Doll minus the fashion sense. My sleeves are so tight I can't lift my arms above my head. Is this the new me?"
But when Genevieve meets the handsome Caleb, teenaged son of one of the other families at Camp Frontier, she wonders if the summer might be salvageable after all. Or is he already hooking up with Nora, the daughter of the couple who own the camp? And just when life at the camp seems to be getting more bearable (and Gen discovers she's actually good at milking their cow!)--her contraband cell phone is discovered. Will her family be voted off of Camp Frontier?
In her acknowledgments, author Cathleen Davitt Bell acknowledges her debt to the PBS series Frontier House, in which three modern families were sent to Montana to experience life in 1883. She also was clearly inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic Little House series. Bell writes that she was eight years old when she opened Little House for the first time--"and by my tenth birthday I was knitting blankets, sewing doll clothes, baking my own bread, and making architectural sketches of a camp that would transport visitors to the frontier. Thank you, Laura Ingalls Wilder, for providing me with years of magic."
In addition to lacing the book with plenty of humor, Bell also demonstrates in her book some of the real rigors of frontier life, where ordinary chores like laundry took an entire day, there was no sun block or screen doors to protect from mosquitos, and bears might roam the woods! While the book does not include a formal bibliography, Bell does mention some of the sources she found most useful in researching pioneer life, particularly for women, in this time period.
This book is likely to be very popular with tween and teen girls, especially those who are or were fans of the still very popular Little House books, or who have enjoyed reruns of the TV series. For extra fun, the author has set up an actual blog that replicates the blog which plays such a key role in the story.
Eighth-grader Genevieve just wants to have a regular summer with her friends, going to the rec-center pool, to soccer camp, and hanging out and talking about cute boys. But when her mother gets the idea that the whole family should go to Camp Frontier, a "resort" in Wyoming where campers pay lots of money to faithfully re-enact the 1890's pioneer experience, Genevieve is far from thrilled. It's not just living without her I-pod, computer and lip gloss that gets her down...she also has to use an incredibly stinky outhouse, deal with killer mosquitos and attacking chickens, and horror of horrors--share a bed with her younger brother!
Her mother promises reluctant Genevieve her own cell phone at the end of the summer if she'll just cooperate for a few months with their little adventure. Little does her mother suspect that Genevieve has secretly hidden the cell phone and is using it to text her friends back home with laugh-out-loud updates on her pioneer experiences. Here's an example:
"Week 1 - Sunday. 2:27 pm. Help! I'm dressed up like an American Girl Doll minus the fashion sense. My sleeves are so tight I can't lift my arms above my head. Is this the new me?"
But when Genevieve meets the handsome Caleb, teenaged son of one of the other families at Camp Frontier, she wonders if the summer might be salvageable after all. Or is he already hooking up with Nora, the daughter of the couple who own the camp? And just when life at the camp seems to be getting more bearable (and Gen discovers she's actually good at milking their cow!)--her contraband cell phone is discovered. Will her family be voted off of Camp Frontier?
In her acknowledgments, author Cathleen Davitt Bell acknowledges her debt to the PBS series Frontier House, in which three modern families were sent to Montana to experience life in 1883. She also was clearly inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic Little House series. Bell writes that she was eight years old when she opened Little House for the first time--"and by my tenth birthday I was knitting blankets, sewing doll clothes, baking my own bread, and making architectural sketches of a camp that would transport visitors to the frontier. Thank you, Laura Ingalls Wilder, for providing me with years of magic."
In addition to lacing the book with plenty of humor, Bell also demonstrates in her book some of the real rigors of frontier life, where ordinary chores like laundry took an entire day, there was no sun block or screen doors to protect from mosquitos, and bears might roam the woods! While the book does not include a formal bibliography, Bell does mention some of the sources she found most useful in researching pioneer life, particularly for women, in this time period.
This book is likely to be very popular with tween and teen girls, especially those who are or were fans of the still very popular Little House books, or who have enjoyed reruns of the TV series. For extra fun, the author has set up an actual blog that replicates the blog which plays such a key role in the story.
December 15, 2010
I was darn near enchanted by this cute, cute story of a 13 year old girl forced to go to an authentic 1890 frontier camp with her family for the summer, when really she should be splitting her time between soccer camp and the pool with her two best friends Kristin and Ashley. She manages to sneak her brand new cell phone into camp in her box of clearasil, the one luxury she convinces her mother and the camp director to let her keep. On it, she sends regular texts to Kristin and Ashley, who decide it would be great to turn the texts into a blog -- which gets a few hits the first day, a few hundred the next few weeks, and half a million by the middle of the summer. And then the poop really hits the fan. Or it would, if fans were allowed at camp.
Laugh out loud funny, with a great voice and a completely unique premise. At times Gen seems far too witty and mature to be only 13, I spent most of the book thinking she was more like 15 or 16, but I enjoyed it so much I didn't really mind. A few quotes:
"Here's what you need to do to make butter. After you get a bucket of milk, you let it sit on the counter for a day. Before long, some stuff starts to collect on the top -- a skin -- and then if you leave it, it gets thicker. That's how you get cream. I know, totally foul, but you spoon that into this big wooden bucket with a paddle in it called a butter churn. Then you sit there using the paddle to mix up the cream stuff until your arm feels like it's about to fall off. You lift the lid on the churn, check to see if you've got butter, and that no, it's not even close. So then you get really depressed. Being depresssed is an enormously important part of the process; you can almost tell how thick the butter is just by how defeated and miserable you feel personally. But you keep stirring it some more anyway. It takes about five hundred million years before the stuff in the churn turns to butter, and by the time it has your arms are trembling, you have blisters on your hands, you hate your mom, and you promise that, to make it last longer, you will hardly eat any of this butter yourself. But it's so good, that's kind of a hard promise to keep, especially when everyone else is slathering it on everything like it's free."
"She sighed and closed her eyes and looked at me only out of the bottoms of them, like the conversation was making her exhausted. How could anyone learn to be this mean without having gone to middle school?"
"When she smiled at us, the two-bazillion-watt stadium lights shinging down on us were nothing compared to her inner glow. Her smile made you feel not that she must have been a cheerleader in high school, but like you yourself were a cheeleader in high school. Even if, like me, you haven't even started high school."
Laugh out loud funny, with a great voice and a completely unique premise. At times Gen seems far too witty and mature to be only 13, I spent most of the book thinking she was more like 15 or 16, but I enjoyed it so much I didn't really mind. A few quotes:
"Here's what you need to do to make butter. After you get a bucket of milk, you let it sit on the counter for a day. Before long, some stuff starts to collect on the top -- a skin -- and then if you leave it, it gets thicker. That's how you get cream. I know, totally foul, but you spoon that into this big wooden bucket with a paddle in it called a butter churn. Then you sit there using the paddle to mix up the cream stuff until your arm feels like it's about to fall off. You lift the lid on the churn, check to see if you've got butter, and that no, it's not even close. So then you get really depressed. Being depresssed is an enormously important part of the process; you can almost tell how thick the butter is just by how defeated and miserable you feel personally. But you keep stirring it some more anyway. It takes about five hundred million years before the stuff in the churn turns to butter, and by the time it has your arms are trembling, you have blisters on your hands, you hate your mom, and you promise that, to make it last longer, you will hardly eat any of this butter yourself. But it's so good, that's kind of a hard promise to keep, especially when everyone else is slathering it on everything like it's free."
"She sighed and closed her eyes and looked at me only out of the bottoms of them, like the conversation was making her exhausted. How could anyone learn to be this mean without having gone to middle school?"
"When she smiled at us, the two-bazillion-watt stadium lights shinging down on us were nothing compared to her inner glow. Her smile made you feel not that she must have been a cheerleader in high school, but like you yourself were a cheeleader in high school. Even if, like me, you haven't even started high school."
March 14, 2011
Nothing ground-breaking here. It's actually between 2 and 3 stars for me. I think the audience it is written for (tweens, young teens) would like it more than this adult did, so I can't be too critical. I like the idea of a family spending a summer at a frontier camp, but I thought the no-technology rules set up by the camp owners were just arbitrarily thrown in to create a conflict in the plot. I spent one week traveling around Wyoming this summer and didn't have a cell phone signal most of the time, so Gen having one was unbelievable. Finally, I had a really hard time believing that Gen's text messages to her friends would get 500,000 blog readers. Really? We were TOLD that her texts were insightful and that she was such a great writer, but the text messages that were included in the story were just brief exchanges that are typical between 13 year old girls.
March 16, 2013
Boy, this title hit close to home! My one-woman show, "A Visit With Laura Ingalls Willder" has taught me that while I enjoy telling & re-enacting the stories from the late 19th century, I enjoy my automatic washer too much to wish to live in that historical period! In Bell's revealing coming of age novel, 13-year old, Gen, and her family reluctantly go to a frontier camp one summer and discover that 21st century electronic devices are not allowed, and food, clothing, shelter, & survival must conform to circa 1890s regimes. It is a bone-crushingly difficult and exhausting existence, and Gen documents every bit of it via text from her forbidden phone, with wit & humor. She has no idea that, after her friend posts these texts online in blog format, thousands of people are following her pithy comments. Of course, they all come back to bite her in the end, but it makes you think!
October 9, 2013
Little Blog on The Prairie is a realistic fiction book with some adventure in it too. It takes place at a camp called Camp Frontier. When you go to that camp, you stay on a farm with people pretending that they’re from the 1800s on it.
Genevieve, the main character, has parents who won’t let her have a phone until she is in college. But, they agreed to give her her phone early if she went to a Little House on The Prairie Camp with them. But the camp is supposed to last all summer, and they were going to give her the phone after camp. So she decides to bring the phone with her to camp.
I liked this book because it has a little bit of everything. It has a little action, adventure, mystery, and more. So if you like a book with a little action and adventure, this book is right for you. So read Little Blog on The Prairie to find out what happens.
Genevieve, the main character, has parents who won’t let her have a phone until she is in college. But, they agreed to give her her phone early if she went to a Little House on The Prairie Camp with them. But the camp is supposed to last all summer, and they were going to give her the phone after camp. So she decides to bring the phone with her to camp.
I liked this book because it has a little bit of everything. It has a little action, adventure, mystery, and more. So if you like a book with a little action and adventure, this book is right for you. So read Little Blog on The Prairie to find out what happens.
December 20, 2016
We have the luxury of the modern world, but for Genevieve Welsh modern is far from true (at least in her case). This is an eye-opening story about a girl who’s family thought it was for the best that they attend Pioneer Camp over the course of the summer. This book was very well written from the perspective of Gen as she tries to survives being in the “1890s.” I really like this book because the description of everything Gen experiences is very vivid. I couldn’t imagine having to spend my summer held up in a cabin next to the woods, sharing everything with my family, and having no screens to keep the bugs out. Also, reading Gen’s thoughts helps me understand the story better. I would definitely recommend this book to people, seeing that it is an eye-opening story of how things were back in the 1890’s.
July 11, 2011
In the tradition of Feed, Very LeFreak, and Little House on the Prarie comes a tale of disconnecting from technology and getting back to our roots - whether we want to or not. A lovely book about the clash of cultures that occurs when Gen's family spends their vacation at a 1890's stylized farm (anyone else imagine Old World Wisconsin when reading this?). In the process, she learns more about her family, herself, and the world around her. A thought provoking novel that is sure to open up discussion and help us examine our own dependency to technology.
May 7, 2011
I had to check out this one just for the title! And it's a cute story. I feel like I was kind of at a distance from all the characters, but it was an interesting read.
Though sometimes when I read stories like this, I wish that the main character wanted whatever situation they're put into. I know stories need conflict, but I thought Gen's experience was pretty cool! I don't know if I'd want to do it at 27, with how attached I am to my computer, but I would've loved it at 13.
Though sometimes when I read stories like this, I wish that the main character wanted whatever situation they're put into. I know stories need conflict, but I thought Gen's experience was pretty cool! I don't know if I'd want to do it at 27, with how attached I am to my computer, but I would've loved it at 13.
May 6, 2016
I really liked this book a lot..... except for the kissing scene between a 13 year old and a boy who was either the same age or a couple years older that made my jaw drop..... wasn't expecting that....
September 14, 2010
I was torn. I liked the premise and the characters. But it was a fluff read and I lost interest in some parts.
I enjoyed it but, it wasn't like I couldn't put it down.
I enjoyed it but, it wasn't like I couldn't put it down.
July 19, 2012
That camp sounds insane and extreme...but this was a cute book. Can I label it an instant juvenile classic without actually making it one of my personal highlights? No? Fine, 4 stars it is.
April 15, 2019
So last year, I had the misfortune of reading Cathleen Davitt Bell's "romance" novel I Remember You. It was one of the worst books I've ever read, and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I think about it. So imagine my surprise when I see a book called Little Blog on the Prairie and I add it to Goodreads... and then I discover who wrote it. I almost didn't even bother, but the premise sounded too tempting and I went ahead with reading it several months later.
I cannot believe I'm saying this, but this was a fun read. It's honestly astounding how much of a difference the subject matter and tone made on Davitt Bell's writing. One of my biggest criticisms for I Remember You was the fact that the hyperbolic similes clashed terribly with the bland protagonist and the overall dour tone of the story. ("She looked at me as if she'd just noticed I was a mutant zombie baby killer" is still one of the dumbest things I've ever read.) In this book, the main character, Gen, is thirteen and she uses similes and often goes off on tangents, but that's much more age appropriate and understandable because she's a younger teen, and her personality supports her being overly dramatic and sassy. This book doesn't get too serious, save for a few moments, so the fact that Gen is constantly making witty remarks and over-the-top comparisons isn't out of place here.
The premise felt like a pretty standard YA comedy; my boyfriend mentioned he could see this as a Disney Channel movie, and I definitely agree with him. A family vacation to a camp where you dress and work like it's 1890, completely cut off from the outside world, is obviously setting up for a lot of slapstick and goofy humor. The characters aren't too developed and the plot elements definitely feel cliche, but I expected as much from a book like this, so I wasn't disappointed.
The romance between Gen and Caleb was unnecessary. I always say if you're going to put something in, either flesh it out or leave it out. Because the characters didn't feel three-dimensional and Caleb's personality was basically Cute Older Boy and nothing else, Gen's crush on him felt very superficial and insta-lovey, and not founded on anything other than looks. Gen's animosity with Nora, the daughter of the owners, had more chemistry and passion, honestly, even if it got old after a while. I also took issue with Gen's blog suddenly being this national phenomenon and her being an internet celebrity of sorts. I realize that anything's possible with the internet, but I highly doubt that a school project would get that much media attention. Gen's writing wasn't even anything to write home about; everyone kept saying she was hilarious and a fantastic writer, which I didn't understand at all from the texts she sent her friends. Her writing wasn't bad, but she certainly isn't Jodi Picoult.
A slightly smaller nitpick, but the bear subplot went nowhere to my disappointment. Gen's father is constantly worried about bears attacking, and he goes to all the trouble to clear the forest around their cabin (I'm not sure how healthy that is for the environment, but okay), and no bears ever appear. It was set up so nicely and I was waiting for Chekhov's gun to go off at some point, but it never did. There was a payoff with Gen's younger brother's subplot and his relationship with the family's chickens, at least, but I was left feeling cheated out of an exciting climax with a grizzly bear.
I knew going in what I was going to get with this book, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I was ready to write off Davitt Bell as a terrible writer and storyteller, but that's not the case at all. She's funny and she can tell an interesting story; I think she just needs to stay away from serious romantic dramas, since that genre is definitely not her strong suit. If anything, she's got a good pitch to make to Disney Channel if they run out of ideas for movies. Congratulations, Cathleen Davitt Bell: you wrote a pretty good book that didn't make me rage.
I cannot believe I'm saying this, but this was a fun read. It's honestly astounding how much of a difference the subject matter and tone made on Davitt Bell's writing. One of my biggest criticisms for I Remember You was the fact that the hyperbolic similes clashed terribly with the bland protagonist and the overall dour tone of the story. ("She looked at me as if she'd just noticed I was a mutant zombie baby killer" is still one of the dumbest things I've ever read.) In this book, the main character, Gen, is thirteen and she uses similes and often goes off on tangents, but that's much more age appropriate and understandable because she's a younger teen, and her personality supports her being overly dramatic and sassy. This book doesn't get too serious, save for a few moments, so the fact that Gen is constantly making witty remarks and over-the-top comparisons isn't out of place here.
The premise felt like a pretty standard YA comedy; my boyfriend mentioned he could see this as a Disney Channel movie, and I definitely agree with him. A family vacation to a camp where you dress and work like it's 1890, completely cut off from the outside world, is obviously setting up for a lot of slapstick and goofy humor. The characters aren't too developed and the plot elements definitely feel cliche, but I expected as much from a book like this, so I wasn't disappointed.
The romance between Gen and Caleb was unnecessary. I always say if you're going to put something in, either flesh it out or leave it out. Because the characters didn't feel three-dimensional and Caleb's personality was basically Cute Older Boy and nothing else, Gen's crush on him felt very superficial and insta-lovey, and not founded on anything other than looks. Gen's animosity with Nora, the daughter of the owners, had more chemistry and passion, honestly, even if it got old after a while. I also took issue with Gen's blog suddenly being this national phenomenon and her being an internet celebrity of sorts. I realize that anything's possible with the internet, but I highly doubt that a school project would get that much media attention. Gen's writing wasn't even anything to write home about; everyone kept saying she was hilarious and a fantastic writer, which I didn't understand at all from the texts she sent her friends. Her writing wasn't bad, but she certainly isn't Jodi Picoult.
A slightly smaller nitpick, but the bear subplot went nowhere to my disappointment. Gen's father is constantly worried about bears attacking, and he goes to all the trouble to clear the forest around their cabin (I'm not sure how healthy that is for the environment, but okay), and no bears ever appear. It was set up so nicely and I was waiting for Chekhov's gun to go off at some point, but it never did. There was a payoff with Gen's younger brother's subplot and his relationship with the family's chickens, at least, but I was left feeling cheated out of an exciting climax with a grizzly bear.
I knew going in what I was going to get with this book, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I was ready to write off Davitt Bell as a terrible writer and storyteller, but that's not the case at all. She's funny and she can tell an interesting story; I think she just needs to stay away from serious romantic dramas, since that genre is definitely not her strong suit. If anything, she's got a good pitch to make to Disney Channel if they run out of ideas for movies. Congratulations, Cathleen Davitt Bell: you wrote a pretty good book that didn't make me rage.
April 7, 2018
Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell wasn’t on my radar at all, but the title caught my eye while I was passing through the YA section in the library.
The premise: Gen comes from a modern family where each member tends to operate mostly apart from the others. Gen’s mom, a “Little House on the Prairie addict,” decides the whole family would benefit from a vacation to “Camp Frontier,” where everyone is supposed to live like it’s 1890.
No one else in the family is happy about it. Gen only acquiesces when her mom shows her a new cell phone and tells her she can have it when they get back from vacation. But Gen smuggles the phone into camp with her, and when she can find some privacy, she texts her two best friends about how horrible everything is. The friends make a blog out of her texts, which then goes viral, which brings a news crew out to see what’s going on.
Some reviewers objected to Gen’s sarcastic, whiny attitude, but I think they missed the point that she changes during the course of the book. She realizes at one point that her attitude is ruining the experience for her mother, who had looked forward to it. She finds there is satisfaction in seeing the results of hard work. She comes to find that hastily sent words made public can come back to haunt her. It takes the family a long time, but they do learn the value of pulling together and enjoying each other’s company. But the author isn’t saying that going back to a “simpler” time is the answer to modern problems: first of all, they weren’t so simple, and second of all, people without modern conveniences had personal and family issues, too.
Gen is just finishing eighth grade as the book begins, so in my book she’s too young to be kissing a guy near the end and having him tell her that her dress is sexy. There’s mention of an obscene gesture coming from a younger girl. It’s written from a modern secular viewpoint. So for all those reasons I don’t know that I would give the book to a young teen, at least not without some discussion about those issues and Gen’s attitude. But it does bring out some timeless truths without being heavy-handed about it.
The premise: Gen comes from a modern family where each member tends to operate mostly apart from the others. Gen’s mom, a “Little House on the Prairie addict,” decides the whole family would benefit from a vacation to “Camp Frontier,” where everyone is supposed to live like it’s 1890.
No one else in the family is happy about it. Gen only acquiesces when her mom shows her a new cell phone and tells her she can have it when they get back from vacation. But Gen smuggles the phone into camp with her, and when she can find some privacy, she texts her two best friends about how horrible everything is. The friends make a blog out of her texts, which then goes viral, which brings a news crew out to see what’s going on.
Some reviewers objected to Gen’s sarcastic, whiny attitude, but I think they missed the point that she changes during the course of the book. She realizes at one point that her attitude is ruining the experience for her mother, who had looked forward to it. She finds there is satisfaction in seeing the results of hard work. She comes to find that hastily sent words made public can come back to haunt her. It takes the family a long time, but they do learn the value of pulling together and enjoying each other’s company. But the author isn’t saying that going back to a “simpler” time is the answer to modern problems: first of all, they weren’t so simple, and second of all, people without modern conveniences had personal and family issues, too.
Gen is just finishing eighth grade as the book begins, so in my book she’s too young to be kissing a guy near the end and having him tell her that her dress is sexy. There’s mention of an obscene gesture coming from a younger girl. It’s written from a modern secular viewpoint. So for all those reasons I don’t know that I would give the book to a young teen, at least not without some discussion about those issues and Gen’s attitude. But it does bring out some timeless truths without being heavy-handed about it.
October 22, 2022
This was a humorous YA book that imagined what might happen when a family goes to a "pioneer camp" to spend a couple months of "vacation." It wasn't what Genevieve had imagined. Along with several other families, Gen and her mom, dad, and younger brother, were transitioned into 1890. They had to give up all their electronic devices, their modern-day clothing, etc., and were plunged into frontier life. Each family had to grow their own food, take care of chickens, milk a cow, figure out how to cook with wood, use an outhouse, wash laundry in a tub, and many other tasks that modern people have no idea how to perform. The camp directors were even more into frontier life - and they'd been doing it for years, along with daughter Nora, who was proficient in all aspects of pioneering, and was home schooled - and hated it all. Gen and Nora developed a very difficult relationship - Nora was very superior-acting and made fun of Gen at every turn. And then there was Caleb - a young fellow about the same age as the girls. Gen fell for him immediately, but Nora made sure Gen knew that Caleb was hers. Although Caleb sure didn't realize that!
There were a lot of secrets in this pioneer camp. One of them was that Gen had sneaked in her cell phone as a link to her friends from home. She shared her experiences to them, and one of her friends started a blog about Gen's trials with frontier life. But Gen's wasn't the only secret. And eventually, the whole camp sort of blew up with all the secret life that was happening.
I enjoyed the read, but feel like the author gave home-schooled kids a bad rap. Not all home educated children hate their lives, feel restricted and can't wait to ditch their existence for "normal life." In my opinion, "normal life" soon pales on homeschooled children - partly because they are much more mature than their peers. But read it for yourself, it is entertaining at least!
There were a lot of secrets in this pioneer camp. One of them was that Gen had sneaked in her cell phone as a link to her friends from home. She shared her experiences to them, and one of her friends started a blog about Gen's trials with frontier life. But Gen's wasn't the only secret. And eventually, the whole camp sort of blew up with all the secret life that was happening.
I enjoyed the read, but feel like the author gave home-schooled kids a bad rap. Not all home educated children hate their lives, feel restricted and can't wait to ditch their existence for "normal life." In my opinion, "normal life" soon pales on homeschooled children - partly because they are much more mature than their peers. But read it for yourself, it is entertaining at least!
November 3, 2016
I'm afraid I will be damning this book with faint praise, but really, it's not what you expect. (Let's face it, I read it because I knew it would keep coming back to haunt me, because of my interest in historical material culture, kids/ya literature, and what T. Kingfisher refers to as "frontier competence p*rn," so I'd better get it over with.) Reading the cover, you figure it can go either one of two or three ways: either Our Heroine is Transformed by her experiences of Hard Work and Family Bonding, or after Suffering Valiantly, Our Heroine's family has a revelation that they are just Not Good Enough for the Heroine. Or, y'know, we'll just suffer through an entire YA book full of Wimpy-Kid style whining.
Well, it didn't. The supporting characters weren't two-dimensional, though they sometimes played that way, and our heroine showed an age-appropriate shallow understanding of others. I'm not sure the female characters were complex enough, but they were complex enough. There were no simple answers, or simple characters. Towards the end, there were a lot of twists and a turns, and a sort of deus ex machina but given that this was probably inspired by PBS's Frontier House project, that's ok.
Bottom line: the plot wasn't hackneyed or ridiculous, the young people mostly didn't make me want to strangle them, and it was a decent read. :)
Well, it didn't. The supporting characters weren't two-dimensional, though they sometimes played that way, and our heroine showed an age-appropriate shallow understanding of others. I'm not sure the female characters were complex enough, but they were complex enough. There were no simple answers, or simple characters. Towards the end, there were a lot of twists and a turns, and a sort of deus ex machina but given that this was probably inspired by PBS's Frontier House project, that's ok.
Bottom line: the plot wasn't hackneyed or ridiculous, the young people mostly didn't make me want to strangle them, and it was a decent read. :)
February 20, 2024
Vacation with your family can always be a little iffy. But this time, Gen's mom has done the unthinkable: she's signed the family up for summer camp. As if that wasn't bad enough? It's a summer camp that takes place in the 1890's.
Gen and her 10 year old brother Gavin are used to summer vacations at places like Club Med. But this year, her mother, a die hard fan of Little House on the Prairie, has signed them up for a chance to experience old, old fashioned life. That's right. Their camp is an authentic look at life on the homestead. Suddenly their summer is full of chickens, bears, and OMG, no internet?!
Gen is miserable. The one solace she has is the cell phone she snuck in. Texting her friends updates about "authentic" life in the 1800's is maybe the only thing keeping her sane. After all, there are bears, outhouses, and somehow, mean girls, all conspiring to ruin her summer. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!
I loved this book. It was so cute and I could definitely relate to the main character. Who wants to be forced to give up summer camp and friends and oh, yeah, TECHNOLOGY, just to do manual labor from sunup to sunset?! But don't worry, there are ways to enjoy yourself, too, if you look for them!
Gen and her 10 year old brother Gavin are used to summer vacations at places like Club Med. But this year, her mother, a die hard fan of Little House on the Prairie, has signed them up for a chance to experience old, old fashioned life. That's right. Their camp is an authentic look at life on the homestead. Suddenly their summer is full of chickens, bears, and OMG, no internet?!
Gen is miserable. The one solace she has is the cell phone she snuck in. Texting her friends updates about "authentic" life in the 1800's is maybe the only thing keeping her sane. After all, there are bears, outhouses, and somehow, mean girls, all conspiring to ruin her summer. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!
I loved this book. It was so cute and I could definitely relate to the main character. Who wants to be forced to give up summer camp and friends and oh, yeah, TECHNOLOGY, just to do manual labor from sunup to sunset?! But don't worry, there are ways to enjoy yourself, too, if you look for them!
April 22, 2019
A more fun fluffy read. I had some reservations about how they were going to portray the parents and if it would end up being a parent vs. kid book, but it was pleasantly one of those that everyone had issues to work through and grow from.
I enjoyed the humor that was scattered throughout this, I chuckled over the fact that even thrust into the world of 1890, that you could still end up sneaking out to party and try not to get caught... some things never change.
In short, it was a cute story. I can see my daughter enjoying this maybe when she is a bit older. THere was some boy-girl rivalry going on and I would rather she be a bit older and wiser before taking all that in. I don't remember any bad language, which I am appreciative about. Some things I wish were left out, like the end where Caleb and Gen end up kissing and making a sexy remark. Sometimes Gen thinks things that I just wish weren't in there. It's not that I found it wrong, persay, but that I don't know of any kid that needs that kind of encouragement. From a conservative Christian mom perspective.
I enjoyed the humor that was scattered throughout this, I chuckled over the fact that even thrust into the world of 1890, that you could still end up sneaking out to party and try not to get caught... some things never change.
In short, it was a cute story. I can see my daughter enjoying this maybe when she is a bit older. THere was some boy-girl rivalry going on and I would rather she be a bit older and wiser before taking all that in. I don't remember any bad language, which I am appreciative about. Some things I wish were left out, like the end where Caleb and Gen end up kissing and making a sexy remark. Sometimes Gen thinks things that I just wish weren't in there. It's not that I found it wrong, persay, but that I don't know of any kid that needs that kind of encouragement. From a conservative Christian mom perspective.
March 11, 2021
This book is one of the most relatable, funny, and entertaining books out there.
From first person point of view, our main character Genevieve is a typical teenage city girl who is sent to "little house on the prairie experience" vacation with her parents and little brother Gavin, where it feels like torture because of the itchy dress, the country stench, the other campers, and the lack of decent food.
This book could be put into so many genres which I think is fantastic, but the three main themes are family, friendship, and humor.
I've read it so many times and am currently considering buying it. It's extremely well written and easy to picture; it held my interest through the whole book. It was perfectly paced and the emotions were well described and honest. On top of all that, the plot is just fabulous.
I really enjoyed it and it remains in my top ten favorite books:)
From first person point of view, our main character Genevieve is a typical teenage city girl who is sent to "little house on the prairie experience" vacation with her parents and little brother Gavin, where it feels like torture because of the itchy dress, the country stench, the other campers, and the lack of decent food.
This book could be put into so many genres which I think is fantastic, but the three main themes are family, friendship, and humor.
I've read it so many times and am currently considering buying it. It's extremely well written and easy to picture; it held my interest through the whole book. It was perfectly paced and the emotions were well described and honest. On top of all that, the plot is just fabulous.
I really enjoyed it and it remains in my top ten favorite books:)
July 1, 2018
This is not the worst book I have every read. However, it was ridiculously cheesy and total fan-fiction. The premise is that there is a family frontier farm vacation for the summer, where families live like it is 1890. Reminded me almost immediately of PBS "Frontier House". Gen, the 13 year old protagonist, sneaks in a phone to text her best friend back home. Best friend starts posting the texts as a blog about the vacation.
There is the family drama, the friendship drama, the competing drama, the boy drama. The story just keeps on rolling round and round, with a ridiculous ending that had me cracking up.
But again, I've read worse. It was an amusing quick read on vacation, and I will grab almost anything that has mentions of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
There is the family drama, the friendship drama, the competing drama, the boy drama. The story just keeps on rolling round and round, with a ridiculous ending that had me cracking up.
But again, I've read worse. It was an amusing quick read on vacation, and I will grab almost anything that has mentions of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
September 17, 2022
Did you enjoy Little House on the Prairie? What if your mom forced you to relive the 1890s for an entire summer?
Gen and her family aren’t quite prepared for what they signed up for…living in a one room cabin with a loft, using an outhouse, living off grits and beans, and milking a cow daily are just a few of the new lifestyle changes they must adjust to. Lucky for Gen, she was able to smuggle in a cellphone and can text out live SOS updates. But what happens when she’s found out and her texts have gained national attention?
This was a quick and fun YA read! I was a big fan of the Little House series growing up and always said I’d love to go back in time to those days. This has me rethinking it a bit!
Gen and her family aren’t quite prepared for what they signed up for…living in a one room cabin with a loft, using an outhouse, living off grits and beans, and milking a cow daily are just a few of the new lifestyle changes they must adjust to. Lucky for Gen, she was able to smuggle in a cellphone and can text out live SOS updates. But what happens when she’s found out and her texts have gained national attention?
This was a quick and fun YA read! I was a big fan of the Little House series growing up and always said I’d love to go back in time to those days. This has me rethinking it a bit!
May 17, 2018
I thought this book was amazing! it was so funny and I've read it twice because of how much I loved it. My favorite caricature is Gen because she is so similar to a modern day teen who got sent to a camp to live like people used to. I also love how even though her parents said she couldn't have her phone, she did what any other kid would do and took it anyways. Her time at the summer camp with her family and new friends is an amazing story. I would deferentially recommend this book to anyone who has siblings or who likes good books. you wont regret reading it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 23, 2018
Unimpressed. I live in Wyoming, and I can tell you that the majority of this book is bunk. First of all, they're in the mountains and have cell service? HAHAHA. No. Also, these families are harvesting vegetables during the early summer??? We can't even plant outdoors until mid-May AT THE EARLIEST. Nice researching job, Cathleen. You drove through Wyoming once, or what?
As for the actual story and characters? I could not stand any of the characters, the plot was practically non-existent, and the ending was absolutely ridiculous.
As for the actual story and characters? I could not stand any of the characters, the plot was practically non-existent, and the ending was absolutely ridiculous.
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