Alone

by Megan E Freeman (Author)

Alone
Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade

Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town.

When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She's alone--left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.

With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten.

As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie's most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie's stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?

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Publishers Weekly

Poet Freeman makes her middle grade debut with this engaging survival story in verse based on Island of the Blue Dolphins. When 12-year-old Maddie's plans for a secret sleepover fall through, she decides to stay at her grandparents' empty summer apartment solo, having already lied to her divorced parents about her whereabouts. An unexpected middle-of-the-night evacuation leaves Maddie completely alone in her small Colorado town, without power, information, or any way to communicate with loved ones. With only the neighbor's rottweiler as a companion, Maddie spends the next three years surviving on her own--gathering food from abandoned stores, navigating ever-changing and sometimes dangerous weather, and hiding from looters and wild dogs. Most of all, she must overcome the unending loneliness and uncertainty that each day brings. The lengths to which resourceful Maddie must go in order to survive feel realistic, and Freeman's well-paced verse magnifies significant and harrowing moments. The explanation of the "imminent danger" that left Maddie alone is vague and hasty, however--after readers follow a worthy protagonist through three years of solitude and despair, the abrupt resolution disappoints. Ages 10-up. Agent: Deborah Warren, East West Literary. (Jan.)

Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Madeleine relates her own riveting, immersive story in believable detail, her increasingly sophisticated thoughts, as years pass, sweeping down spare pages in thin lines of verse in this Hatchet for a new age. . . . Suspenseful, fast-paced, and brief enough to engage even reluctant readers." — "Kirkus Reviews"
Megan E Freeman
Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week, and she has been a writer ever since. She writes middle grade and young adult fiction. Megan is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. An award-winning teacher with decades of classroom experience, Megan taught multiple subjects across the arts and humanities to students of all ages. She lives near Boulder, Colorado. Visit her online at MeganEFreeman.com.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781534467569
Lexile Measure
690
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Aladdin Paperbacks
Publication date
January 12, 2021
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV057000 - Juvenile Fiction | Stories in Verse (see also Poetry)
JUV001010 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure | Survival Stories
JUV059000 - Juvenile Fiction | Dystopian
Library of Congress categories
Survival
Novels in verse
Best friends
Loneliness
Sleepovers
Rottweiler dog
Loneliness in adolescence
Abandoned cities

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