Maddie can’t wait for her plan to kick into action. She and her friends are going to have the ultimate sleepover in Maddie’s empty grandparent’s apartment. Maddie is going to tell her dad she is at her mum’s and vice versa. Her friends have their own white lies lined up ready for a night of staying up late, eating junk food and watching old black and white movies together.

The plan falls apart and Maddie decides to stay alone anyway. When she wakes in the morning, she finds multiple texts and alerts on her phone. There has been a mass evacuation through the night, her parents both hoping to see her soon on a transporter. Maddie knew this could happen as they had been trained to do this if an imminent threat arose. She has no idea what that threat could be, and can hardly believe it has finally happened.

Her first reaction is to text back, revealing where she really is. Voicemail is her answer whoever she texts. Texting her grandparents doesn’t work either. It’s not long before she realises there is no-one around. On the streets, in other houses, at the designated collection points or shops. She is ALONE.

Remembering advice from her dad long ago to “Stay put,” if ever lost, Maddie stays near her home. She teams up with the neighbour’s rottweiler George, and when the TV Channels turn to static and the electricity goes, she ventures further for food and water.

Days pass. Weeks and then months, as Maddie hopes for rescue and misses the sound of a human voice. When she finally does hear one, she knows she must hide. These aren’t the people she needs. But watching them leave is as painful as being left behind in the first place.

With the help of the town library shelves she learns all she needs to know for survival and for sanity, keeping herself occupied as much as possible.

After facing dangers both human and from nature, Maddie finally resigns to the fact she is ALONE without any hope of rescue.

Set in a possible dystopian future where the population is on alert for an imminent threat, a 12 yr old girl finds herself ALONE. This story for Tweens (Middle-Grade) readers is in verse and one we have all thought of at some stage. What would happen if we were completely alone?

The famous story by Gary Paulsen called Hatchet about a boy all alone has mesmerised millions around the world, but is set in the wilderness. This story is set within a town. Shelter may be guaranteed (for the most part), but summer heat and cold Colorado winters are fierce, and so are the wild animals that come searching for food. Survival is still the most important thing for the main character.

A multi-award winner, ALONE is told in verse, reading like a gripping novel, portraying a young teen’s struggle to survive.

Author – Megan E Freeman

Age – 11+

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(2022, Simon & Schuster, Survival, Waiting for Rescue, Courage, Bravery, Storms, Lighting, Floods, Looters, Fear, Loneliness, Reading, Discovery, Poetry, Dog, Companion, Family, Growing up, Resourcefulness, Planning, Action, Animals, Blended Family, Dystopian, Bike, Garden, Verse novel)