

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. Is this the new me?"īut 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. My sleeves are so tight I can't lift my arms above my head. Help! I'm dressed up like an American Girl Doll minus the fashion sense. 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.

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.

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! 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. Without a doubt, this was an entertaining, delightful, and most interesting 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. Ages 12–up.īell has tapped into emotions some of us have forgotten about, but definitely needed to be reminded of. Gen's growing appreciation for the simple life is predictable (though she never entirely drinks the Kool-Aid-make that warm cow's milk) and the reconciliation between Gen and Nora feels contrived, but it's still a lively journey with empathetic characters. Cute Caleb, a fellow camper, is a welcome distraction for Gen, though he seems interested in Nora, the daughter of the couple that runs the camp, and the two girls butt heads.

e are farmers now”), which they turn into a blog that attracts national attention. Gen holds onto her sanity by sending secret text messages to her best friends (“I am standing in the middle of a cornfield. It's a fun premise that leaves Bell ( Slipping ) ample room for physical comedy, while touching on themes of family and the (dis)advantages of modern life. ApTo her great dismay, 13-year-old Gen is spending her entire summer with her family at a frontier camp, where they must re-enact life from 1890, living without technology, growing their own food, tending a cow and chickens, and working on a project to better the farm.
