The Wrong Way Home, Kate OShaughnessy
The Wrong Way Home, Kate OShaughnessy
List: $25.00 | Sale: $17.50
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The Wrong Way Home

Author: Kate O'Shaughnessy

Narrator: Caitlin Kinnunen

Unabridged: 8 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/02/2024

Synopsis

Twelve-year-old Fern believes she's living a noble life--but what if everything she's been told is a lie? This is a huge-hearted story about a girl learning to question everything—and to trust in herself.

A NEWBERY HONOR BOOK • A CALIBA GOLDEN POPPY AWARD FINALIST • A KIRKUS REVIEWS AND BOOKLIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Fern’s lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch's leader, Dr. Ben. So when Fern’s mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn't believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving.

Suddenly thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world, Fern can think only of how to get home. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place—the library, a friend from school, the ocean—and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just...not true.

Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben’s vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?

Reviews

Goodreads review by Betsy on August 07, 2024

Nuance and complexity in books for kids can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, our children deserve only the best possible literature. We must fill them with stories full of three-dimensional characters. We should give them difficult and complicated situations, sometimes without easy answers.......more

Goodreads review by Bookishrealm on May 09, 2025

4.5 The Wrong Way Home was completely and totally unexpected. This is one of those books where revealing too much about the plot can spoil moments of surprise and connection. Though it's my first time encountering Kate O'Shaughnessy, I instantly understood/realized why people enjoy her other novels.......more

Goodreads review by Emily on February 01, 2025

A book about a 12 year old unwillingly being rescued from a cult—this was not a gap I realized existed in middle grade novels. The revelations occur slowly to our unreliable narrator. This part was believable to me. I’m definitely in favor of exposing kids to difficult topics through books, but I do......more

Goodreads review by DaNae on April 27, 2024

Twelve is a hard time in life to question everything you know about what is morally right and wrong. For Fern the two dominate adults in her life, her mother and the Dr. Ben, the leader of her community, are suddenly at odds. Her mother breaks away from The Ranch, the only place Fern has ever called......more

Goodreads review by Gabrielle on February 18, 2025

LOVE books that center around leaving a cult. There are no two ways around it. I'm obsessed by it. Cults and how people could even be a part of one--for whatever length of time--fascinates me. I just don't understand the reasoning. But that is what adds to the adventure. So here we meet Fern who is......more

Quotes

★ "Gripping. A strong, emotionally intelligent story."
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "The suspenseful story is immediately intriguing, skillfully conveying the high-stakes situation and effortlessly drawing the audience in. A tremendous testament to the power in plotting your own course."
—Booklist, starred review

★ "Lovingly crafted with depth and compassion. Nuance suffuses this story of discovery, as Fern’s blind faith grows tenuous."
— Bulletin, starred review

"Driven by a growing self-awareness that she can choose who and what she believes, this is a moving portrait of a girl undergoing drastic change." —Publishers Weekly

"This coming-of-age story centers a girl trying to decide what is right as she struggles to change from one culture to another. The first-person narrative is believable and thought-provoking as Fern reconsiders everything she’s thought to be true." —School Library Journal

"A cleverly written and supremely literary story, while also remaining pretty gripping in its telling.” —SLJ's Fuse 8

"O’Shaughnessy presents a high stakes situation and zeroes in on a child narrator’s believable emotions. That tight focus on the narrator even when she is misguided or doesn’t have all the facts allows readers to draw their own conclusions." — The Horn Book Magazine

“Kate O’Shaughnessy is an extraordinarily talented author whose gift is an innate understanding of the inner life of twelve-year-olds.”
—Gennifer Choldenko, Newbery Honor Winner for Al Capone Does My Shirts

“To leave behind a world that seems totally secure and safe and comfortable, for a world in which you make your own decisions and claim your own life—that is one of our great journeys. In The Wrong Way Home, Fern has to battle her own fear, elaborate illusions, misunderstandings, and the past mistakes of others to get on with that journey—and, dear reader, you will not be able to turn the pages fast enough to see if she makes it. Plan on reading this in one sitting; matters of the human soul don't bear interruption.”
—Gary D. Schmidt, Newbery Honor Winner for The Wednesday Wars

“Young readers will cheer for Fern as she finds the courage to confront the troubling doctrines she has been raised with and reinvent her ideas of home.”
—Jacquetta Nammar Feldman, author of Wishing Upon the Same Stars and The Puttermans Are in the House

Awards

  • CALIBA Golden Poppy Award - Octavia E. Butler Award
  • Great Lakes Book Award
  • Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award
  • Massachusetts Children's Book Award
  • Vermont Golden Dome Book Award
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