Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell

Could you imagine spending your summer living just like the frontier people of 1890 did?  Instead of spending your summer at soccer camp, or at the mall, at the pool...you spend two months milking cows, mucking stalls, tending to the garden and crops, cooking over a wood stove and washing the laundry by hand.  Oh, and don't forget the lack of indoor plumbing and running water. That's right...outhouses.

That's just what Gen experienced when her mother signed her family up for this frontier camp...where they lived just as they did during the 1890's.  This was the time Laura Ignalls Wilder was living that we experienced in her book Little House on the Prairie.

Upon arrival to the camp the "campers" are instructed to change clothes into the typical 1890 fashion and relinquish any item that was not time period appropriate.  Including cell phones, iPods...everything.  Gen manages to talk her way into keeping her facial soap...but in the box was actually her brand new cell phone.

Life is hard in the 1890's.  Their mom is learning how to cook using only a wood stove and the very basic staple items.  For days they ate corn grits and beans.  (Blech.)  Her dad must learn to tend to the corn crop while Gen and her brother figure out how to help around the frontier house, take care of chickens, and help their parents with the jobs of the farm.

Gen manages to stay somewhat sane by texting her friends back in the "real world" telling them all about her experiences and the other kids there, including Caleb the really cute guy and Nora who lives here all the time as her family runs the camp.  Even though they may be living in conditions like the 1890's, the drama that surrounds teens is exactly the same. 

When Gen's friend starts a blog with all of her texts, things get crazy.  And Gen doesn't even know!  Will Gen and her family survive? 

What I Thought: 
This book has such an interesting concept, I literally couldn't put it down!  I LOVE the Little House books and always thought it would be cool to live in that era.  But wow!  The work that entails living this life....we are definitely spoiled rotten living now in 2010!

Gen's family dynamic definitely changes throughout their experience.   I truly enjoyed "watching" them change...each of them.  The teenage drama keeps the book "real" and set in the current times.  Every good book has to have a little romance with drama mixed in right? 

Overall, a great book!  I think a lot of people, especially those into frontier historical fiction will enjoy this.

Highly recommended.

Want to see more?  Check it out on Amazon: Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell.

Reviewed from a library copy.