Free Range Girl

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 regarded as “From Away.” 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