A poignant and affectionate memoir about a time when being young, free, and largely unsupervised was the norm, before the digital age ushered in a world of algorithms and overparenting.
Set in 1976, the bicentennial year, Free Range Girl chronicles the year 12-year-old Meghan spent on a homestead in rural Maine with her father, who built the house by hand. A proponent of the idealistic "back to the land" movement of the '60s and '70s, Meghan's father hoped that renouncing modern conveniences would usher in a life of greater simplicity, authenticity, and independence. Many locals were skeptical of Meghan's father and his cohort --they were nicknamed "The Blow-ins." Nevertheless, without electricity or indoor plumbing, Meghan found herself enduring--and often enjoying--a penniless and largely unsupervised childhood, in which, among other things, she blew her eyebrows off trying to cook with gas, discovered a severed pig's head in a wheelbarrow, learned to ride enormous horses with neither saddle nor helmet, and witnessed her father use a handgun to execute a misbehaving alarm clock. Meghan faces challenges beyond these -- family break-ups, a serious accident that sends her to the hospital, and her attempts to bond with new school friends -- yet she thrives.
This is a powerful and luminous look back at a childhood that could likely never happen again, providing a striking counterpoint to the screen-saturated and tightly managed childhoods of today.
Praise for Meghan Cox Gurdon's The Enchanted Hour:
"Parents and grandparents shouldn't miss The Enchanted Hour." -- James Patterson, international bestselling author
