From Goodreads |
So, I kind of adored Gen, As the FYA girls say, she earned my BFF charm full stop. She is funny and smart and so not like who I was at all at 14 (the girl is a soccer player extraordinaire - so not me). But I was a girl who depended on my electronics and still do. I love being connected constantly, not to mention my music, photos, television shows, they are all digital, all on my computer. I love to read as much as the next girl but my computer, well, he's kind of my best friend (I know, sad really but there it is). As a 14 year old, I was less wired I'll admit but if my mother had tried to pull this on me? I would not have been a happy camper. Luckily, my mother loathes camping with everything in her so my summer vacations as a kid were to Toronto, Montreal, Cedar Point in Ohio. Camping was something Mom put her foot down about when I was around 9 or 10. But Camp Frontier? No, just no. Not my thing. I love learning about history, reading about it, watching historical films etc. but I have absolutely no desire to live in it. I might have been born in the wrong country (Canada or Great Britain, any time you wish to adopt me, I'm your girl), but the wrong century? No, I'm right where I belong here. And this book didn't change my mind in the least. Gen and her family may have found it fun and works for them but I will stick to my Disney cruises thank you very much.
However, I now know what goes into churning butter, doing laundry without a washer and dryer and how one goes about trying to bake with lard. I got a milking lesson, discovered that sometimes you can mistake a rooster for a hen and that window coverings to keep out the bugs is something we hadn't gotten around to yet in 1890. So, Bell did a great job of balancing the story of Gen and her family against the historical activities they found themselves doing. Perhaps not a strict Western but a western for the 21st century. Just the kind I like.