Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Be careful what you wish for when you are nine. It might come true and ruin your life when you get to high school. Janie Gorman knows this truth. Her nine year old self wished for a farm. Now she lives with her family on a “farm-ette, mini-farm”, which brings her continuous shame. Remnants of her farm life are always traveling with her to school: straw in her hair, goat poop on her shoe. Even more mortifying is that her mom, a freelance journalist, documents the family’s farm trials on her blog.  9^th grade has brought a change in Janie's relationship with her mother, who loved high school. Janie feels overwhelmed, insignificant, and ostracized in her enormous high school. As a result she shares less and less with her mom about school. “I thought it was possible I might actually punch my mother if she said one more positive word to me about the wonders of freshman year.” Instead of confiding in her mom, Janie now talks more to her goats Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline. Janie struggles, like many brand new ninth graders, with fitting into a new gigantic high school. She eats lunch in the library because none of her middle school friends eat during her lunch period. Her best friend has virtually no classes with her. All Janie wants is to be normal, to fit in, and avoid drawing shameful attention. The farm makes it impossible. 

Like a basket full of baby chicks in the sunshine, Ten Miles Past Normal will warm your heart. Janie struggles in ways many of us have. Grounded, insightful, and courageous, Janie continues to make good choices. If you’ve ever spent your lunch period in the library because the social scene of the cafeteria overwhelmed you, read this book. If you desperately want to find, as Janie puts it, the “magical land” populated by “cute, smart boys who are interested in girls for their minds”, read this book. If you’ve ever struggled to maintain old friendships while rediscovering yourself in a whole new way, read this book. If you have ever wanted to learn how to play bass guitar, read this book. Struggling to find your own unique path in life? Read this and be encouraged.

Ten Miles Past Normal  is a great end of the school year read. Short chapters with great titles like: “Meanwhile Back at the Ranch” and “The Bus Ride of Doom” will keep the pages turning. What is "authentic funkiness"? Who is this Monster Monroe? Can he be trusted? Can Jam Band save your life?  What is  a klezmer band? Can you survive a hootenanny hosted by your parents? The 209 pages will pass like a breezy afternoon spent swinging in a hammock.

Ten Miles Past Normal would pair well with non-fiction books about farming and sustainable food. Readers who love Janie's story may be interested in books that inspired her parents move to the farm or about what it would really be like. Here are some good choices: Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable Miracle; Food, Inc.; Wisdom of the Radish by Lynda Hopkins; and Jenna Woginrich's Made from Scratch.