I was immediately drawn to this cover--I love Little House on the Prairie and I love blogging--why wouldn't I like this book? The inside cover told me that it's about a 13 year old girl whose parents decide to take the family to Wyoming for a 2-month "vacation" during which they will live as as if it the year 1890. Which means no no technology, no baths, no fast food--you know the drill. Sounds like a recipe for awesome.
Unfortunately, I had a few problems getting through it. First, the main character Gen fell into the all-too-typical YA trope of being an ultimate complainer. She hated her parents, her situation, her clothes, her lack of technology. The complaining eased up after the halfway point, which was a relief, but I almost didn't make it that far into the story, I was getting so tired of it. Second, the plot also wavered between being entirely too predictable and entirely too believable. Of course Gen will fall for the only cute boy in the camp. Of course she'll make friends with the goth girl and enemies with the pretty blonde one. But no way would her text-messages posted to a blog become totally famous in only four weeks. My final qualm was about the farm experience itself. The campers all had to live as if it was the year 1890, but I felt like the program set the campers up for failure and misery. A family in the 1890's would already know how to churn butter, chop wood efficiently, raise and butcher chickens, and weatherproof their house. Of course Gen's mother didn't know how to bake bread from scratch or do laundry by hand. She didn't grow up watching her own mother do that like a woman in 1890 would have. I can only imagine that the author took it to such an extreme in order to exacerbate the characters' misery and for comedic reasons. It worked, but it also bothered me that no one in the story mentioned that inconsistency.
A few things that the author did really well, however, were the characters, the historical information, and the lesson. Under her complainer attitude, Gen wasn't a bad kid and her uncertainty about her situation and her deep-down love for her family was heartfelt. Her parents were actual characters instead of just silly or exaggerated bad guys, and even the other campers ended up being more than just what Gen figured them to be on the surface. I also really enjoyed the historical information about life in 1890. I'm a huge Little House fan, and I long to someday visit a farm like that. (But not for 2 months, thanks!) The lesson was obvious from the start, of course, but well played. Gen had to learn to appreciate her family and her life, understand that people are more complicated than you might think when you meet them, and to sacrifice her own needs for her family and others.
Overall, this was an average read. Gen's complaints almost ruin the book, and the plot is predictable at times and unrealistic at others, however the lessons are good for the middle grade, and the humor and history will most likely keep kids interested. As an adult I was slightly disappointing in the story, but I would expect someone much younger to be able to overlook the book's faults fairly easily.
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