Interesting take on the Appalachian Trail. Megan's 11 and stuck in Vermont for the summer, but all she wants is to see her best friend, Lucy, whose mother is battling cancer. Make no mistake: it's not that Megan wants to be there to support her best friend: it's more than she wants Lucy around to alleviate Megan's boredom. (She's worried about Lucy's mother but doesn't really know what to think of it and would rather worry about herself.) So when Megan gets lost in the woods and stumbles across the AT, she decides to follow it down to Massachusetts, near where Lucy is spending the summer.

Megan only covers about thirty miles of the AT here, or a tiny fraction—something like 1.4%—of the total distance. Because she's eleven and not outdoorsy and prone to getting lost and so on, this takes her the better part of a week. She does some growth over the course of it, but it comes so suddenly and so late in the book that I'm not sure it felt earned. And...good golly there are a lot of secondary/tertiary characters who figure out what she's doing (i.e., that she's the missing girl whose parents think she might be dead) and are just, like, 'welp, seems important to her, so guess we'd better let her parents go on believing she's dead for another couple days'.

I trust there will eventually be more light/YA Appalachian Trail fiction, because I've made it through the books (all three of them) that I know of, and...they're fun.

To contrast the mediocre reviews from underwhelmed parents, I a 16-year-old girl decided to write this review after randomly remembering this book seven years after I read it and actually got my copy signed by the author. While it's been quite a while since I've read through the whole book, I vividly remember reading this book in one night and rereading it multiple times after that. Something about the narrative of a young girl going on a solo adventure sparked what I consider to be the beginning of my love for reading. Along with a few other books such as the hate you give and the evolution of Calpurnia Tate, nature girl has managed to sit in my mind as one of my most core childhood memories. With that said, if you have an 8-11 year old daughter, id say it is worth getting for her to read.

When I heard Jane Kelley describe Nature Girl at my library's Local Author Fair, I knew I had to read it. I hiked part of the Appalachian Trail with camp when I was in high school. In Nature Girl, Megan is dragged to Vermont with her family and forced to participate in mandatory art time each day. She's not at all artistic, unlike her parents and sister. Megan just wants to watch TV, and most of all, she wants to talk to her best friend on the phone. Neither activity is allowed by her parents. They want her to spend time outside, which is why they force her to accompany her sister and her boyfriend on a hike. When Megan gets lost in the woods and overhears a couple talking about hiking from Mount Greylock, Massachusetts, where her best friend is staying, Megan decides that if they can do it, why can't she. Thus begins her grand adventure.

This book was very well done. Megan was pretty obnoxious in the beginning, but I knew she was hurting. Her best friend was supposed to spend the summer with her in Vermont, but she had to cancel because her mother got cancer. Megan didn't understand, but I did. Also, I knew she was ripe from some serious character development, so I decided to give her a chance. I think kids would identify with Megan right away. She's from the city, and she has little experience with nature. Yet, she and her dog embrace the woods (over time). They even take on a bear!

Megan spends a lot of time alone during this book, but because she has her little dog, Arp, with her, she is able to talk aloud to him without it being weird. We get some dialog (albeit one way) in addition to the thoughts inside Megan's head. She also encounters some other characters along the way that add to the story. My favorite was Trail Blaze Betty whose brownies and sage advice keep Megan going when things are rough.

I enjoyed reading the story of Megan's growth while also reminiscing about my own time on the trail. Jane's writing was compelling and fun. She was able to get inside the mind of an 11 year-old girl in a way that works for adults as well as kids. I look forward to reading more of her writing.

http://www.momsradius.com/2017/05/book-review-nature-girl-mg-interview.html

I am such a sucker for a survival story. And don't get me wrong this is THAT kind of survival story- it has nature, danger, bears, making fires, etc. Our little heroine, Megan, is in real danger. But it also another kind of survival story-surviving that weird time between childhood and teenager years. That time in a relationship when one friend needs the total support of another. It made more difficult because Megan just lacks the maturity to handle any of this, but she grows up in this story. Kelley really nailed 11 year old Megan's voice. I thought she was spot on, and her growth is apparent but not in your face.

Here is a quote I that struck me. "Let me tell you the whole trouble with the world. You never get to choose between something you want and something you don't want. Your mom never says, "Would you like broccoli or a chocolate-pudding cup?" Your mom says, "Would you like broccoli or cauliflower?" (pg 187)

Yep, Wiser Megan, I feel ya.

Highly recommended for 8 to 10 year olds.

It loses a star for Megan's poor treatment of My Side of the Mountain. She learns to regret that.

This was a really good book! it was interesting the whole way through and never got boring. i really enjoyed it and the character meghan was funny with her little dog arp.

Such a selfish tween voice. Maybe some other time. Not for my book club.

The main character, 11 year old Megan, had me laughing the entire book. She had excellent sarcastic wit and a stubbornness I admired. Yes, this is a book for middle school readers but I can't completely forgive it for lots of cheesy elements.
I liked how Megan's hike revolved around her determination to save her friendship with her best friend Lucy, who was going through a difficult situation of her own as Megan hiked. I think many adults take to the Appalachian Trail to resolve life issues and I liked how the author decided to have Megan do this in her own adolescent way.