From the Dust Jacket:

"In 1843, with all their possessions loaded onto a single wagon, young Louisa May Alcott and her family bravely venture into the wilderness. Louisa's father is determined to realize his vision of a perfect life: one where people live in peace with each other and with nature, surviving off the land. Louisa keeps a journal in which she vows to try to uphold her father's high ideals.

But her family's journey can't erase her own dreams, doubts, frustrations, and fears. With the words "This is to be my secret diary," Louisa begins recording a very different version of events. Unfolding together, the two accounts reveal one remarkable tale of young writer finding her voice.

Based on Louisa May Alcott's own journals, National Book Award winner Gloria Whelan's novel breathes new life into a forgotten chapter from the youth of the beloved author of Little Women.

Author's Note:

In 1843, when Louisa May Alcott was ten years old, Louisa, her sisters Anna, twelve, Lizzie, seven, and two-year-old Abby May settled with their mother and father on a farm they called Fruitlands. It was the dream of Louisa's father together around him men and women who shared his vision of a more perfect world. Louisa's experiences at Fruitlands were both sad and funny.

From the time she first learned to write, Louisa kept a journal. It is believed that her father destroyed a part of her Fruitlands journal. Louisa herself, when she was older, destroyed many of her diaries. Only nine brief journal entries about her eight months at Fruitlands remain. I have imagined the diary that Louisa might have kept as well as a secret diary that told of her thoughts. This book is fiction, but it is based on real happenings. Fruitlands itself is now a wonderful museum where you may see, among many mementos of those days, the attic where Louisa and her sisters slept and a lock of Louisa's hair.

A fictional diary account of the Alcott family's vision to start a community where people live in peace with each other and nature, living off the land. Louisa keeps two diaries, one for her parents' eyes and a secret one where she reveals what's really happening between the lines of her first diary. In many ways, her father and Mr. Lane, the financial backer of Fruitlands, are ridiculously idealistic. The community should only eat plants that grow up to the sky rather than those that grow down into the ground. They shouldn't wear cotton because it comes from slave labor but neither should they wear silk because it comes from the labor of worms. When bugs infest the crops, they are to be removed and moved across the river, not killed. Louisa at times is too spirited and outspoken about their life at Fruitlands, which often gets her into trouble.

Although this book is published as recommended for 8-11 year olds, I wouldn't want my 8 year old to read it. If someone walked into a library and picked this up, reading it out of the context of the lives of the Alcott Family, I'm afraid it would be depressing with no hope or mention of the good things that came from this family. Bronson Alcott just sounds mentally ill and abusive of his family. It might be ok reading for a completist familiar with the whole story of the Alcotts and the Transcendentalists, which I am not. I realize it is a children's book but was still disappointed. It consists of two fictionalized diaries kept by Louisa May Alcott, one her parents had access to, and the other one secret. I couldn't resist that premise. I should have. ( )

This fictionalized account of Alcott's life covers the year the Alcott family lived at Fruitlands, Bronson Alcott's attempt at a utopian society. The book is in diary format, alternating between Louy's "public" and "private" journals (as imagined by Whelan, of course). These document the struggles of a loving and high-spirited girl who longs to be a good and obedient daughter, but finds herself a long way from perfection. She's surrounded by an interesting cast of characters -- her loving mother, of course, and high-minded father, as well as her perfect older sister Anna, sympathetic younger sister Lizzie, and toddler Abby May. Joining them at Fruitlands are Mr. Lane, a stern Englishman, and his son William, along with a motley cast of characters who are also seeking perfection. (Unfortunately, these secondary characters are more sketches than fully developed characters.) The quest ends unhappily, as the year's harvest proves insufficient to see them through the winter, and the individuals end up going their separate ways.

This book is not one of Whelan's better efforts. Perhaps the difficulty is in portraying so well-known a figure as Alcott faithfully, or perhaps it's the bittersweet ending of the book, but for me, the story fell flat. It was a quick read, but felt a bit repetitive -- Louy does something seemingly harmless / speaks without thinking / is a tiny bit rebellious, father scolds her, she cries and apologizes. Moreover, I think it is difficult to find the right audience for this book. Readers too young for Little Women are unlikely to be interested in the lives of the Alcott family, though some readers who enjoy books like the "Dear America" series might read it for the diary format and historical context. Older readers who are interested in Alcott's life will probably seek information among the plethora of Alcott biographies, where they can get more concrete information about Bronson Alcott's Transcendental philosophies and utopian dreams. This book is pleasant (though not particularly exciting) to read, but it neither presents a great deal of information about Alcott nor engages the reader with strong plotting and characterization. ( )