The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Suspenseful, fast-paced, and brief enough to engage even reluctant readers. 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. But it’s loneliness that becomes her greatest enemy and books from the local library that ultimately sustain her. Later she survives both a tornado and a wildfire that sweeps through her neighborhood. At one point she encounters but evades a vicious group of looters. After rescuing a neighbor’s dog, her only companion, she becomes increasingly sophisticated in her survival efforts, collecting food and water, learning how to light a fire in her father’s woodstove and, bicycle helmet secured in place, teaching herself to drive a car. A Colorado winter will be coming soon enough. At first, there’s still electricity and running water, but as days turn into weeks and then months, utilities fail, and Madeleine comes to realize that she’s truly on her own. Although there had been hints of unrest, she has no real idea why everyone left or when-perhaps if-they’ll ever come back. Twelve-year-old Madeleine Albright Harrison is inadvertently left behind when her whole region is abruptly evacuated in the night. But Maddie's most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day.Freeman’s middle-grade debut starts with a wallop and carries on from there. 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.Īs months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. She's alone-left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.

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. 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.

Alone book by megan freeman