Alone Paperback – May 3, 2022

My 4th grade students and I loved this book. It had just the right amount of adventure and suspense to keep us reading. It is written in verse, which added to the emotional connection to the character. While we started this as a read aloud, the verse did not lend itself well to a teacher read. It was just enough to get my students interested though. I needed to purchase a second copy as this one was read so much. Can’t wait for the sequel!

Amazing book. Great read. My 11 year old daughter and I loved reading this. Very well written. I would recommend!

I absolutely LOVED this book. The poetic aspect of it really helped to emphasize all the deep meanings in the story!! Do recommend!!

My daughter (10yo) was GLUED to this book from start to finish. Gripping storyline (she shared with me in detail,) and we cannot wait to get the next one. (AWAY) She does read a little bit ahead of her age.

Almost-thirteen-year-old Maddie is “a ghost in a twenty-first century ghost town,” after a mysterious event wipes out the entire population Millerville, Colorado—overnight—in Megan E. Freeman’s ALONE.What happened? How and why was Maddie spared? Will she survive? Will she find her family? Will her family find her?Maddie’s experience really is a kid’s worst nightmare. Narrating through striking, skeletal prose, she discloses details about herself, her family, and her friend, Emma, a fashionista—who never told Maddie about her parents’ pending divorce.“I am on my own…childhood is over.” Matter-of-factly, Maddie doesn’t complain. A resourceful and independent bookworm, Maddie “gets to work,” moving to her dad’s house, stocking up for winter, growing a garden, outwitting hungry coyotes and looters, and overcoming other “impossible obstacles."It doesn’t take long for Maddie to realize survival is more than food, water, and shelter. She craves the irreplaceable comfort of people. Not even Maddie’s furry companion George can replace the sound of the human voice. There is none like it “in all the world,” Scott O’Dell’s epigraph warns the reader. Maddie wants her mom. She’d even settle to be back in math, surrounded by people she “didn’t even realize [she] loved.” A flushing toilet lends her a moment of feeling human again.As fall moves into winter, spring, summer, and back into fall, Maddie reads, sleeps, and forges her way through the days. The reader imagines her sitting by the fire, flashlight in hand, journaling in what becomes the book.Between the bindings are words about words. Even the spaces speak. Heaven, Exploration, Peril, Desolation, Acceptance, Reconciliation: ALONE is broken into parts by single, stark terms and their definitions. A postcard, text messages, voicemail, a book report, and a letter to God add depth and dimension to structure and plot. Like an ice crystal in the Colorado winter, the novel catches light, giving color and hope to what it means to be human.Freeman artfully adds hollow beauty to the survival story. Maddie’s whispers trail from the last pages: “There is only this / the touch of their hands / skin on warm skin / to be held / to be seen / to be heard / to be known / these are the nutrients…”

I absolutely loved this book I was hopeful the entire ride through the story that things would turn out I was so worried that they would not to find out if they do you’ll have to read the book. The strength and hope of the main character is truly fascinating to me as there is so much that we as humans can accomplish if we are just willing to be brave enough to start.

Excellent quality, I'm glad I bought it. Thank you

Maddie is a typical teen living in Colorado. Maddie splits her time between her mom and step-dad’s house and her dad and step-mom’s house. She and two of her friends hatch a plan to spend a night at Maddie’s grandparents apartment alone. Maddie tells her mom she is staying with her dad and tells her dad she is staying with her mom to babysit. She goes to her grandma’s apartment and waits for her two friends to arrive. Unfortunately, their parents call her mom and are told she is at her dad’s so they can’t go anywhere. Then the unimaginable happens. Maddie hears sounds of panic outside of her grandma’s apartment. People are being rounded up. She hears the neighbor tell the person in charge that the owners are out of state. Maddy wakes the next morning to learn that everyone in her town has been evacuated due to an “imminent threat”. This begins Maddie’s journey to survive. She doesn’t know what the threat is. As she goes about town she finds a barrel with cell phones in it. She dials her mom’s number and hears a phone ring in one of the barrels, she tries her dad’s phone and her friends’ phones only to realize every one of them were left behind. This is a story of survival. It starts with Maddie talking to one of her step-brothers about the book “Island of the Blue Dolphins”. There are definite similarities between the book and Maddie’s new reality. I loved that this was told in verse which made it a very quick read. The emotional aspect as you go day by day and year by year on this ride with Maddie makes you wonder what you would do if you were left behind. Can’t wait to put this on my school shelves.