About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
Maddie has big-city dreams, and this summer she's found her chance to visit New York.
An art magazine is holding a portrait painting contest, and the first prize is an all-expenses-paid trip to the Big Apple. Maddie plans to win, but her mother has different plans for her: a mother-daughter adventure in organic farming. Maddie is furious. How will she find an inspiring subject for her portrait amid the goat poop and chickens? And worse, her new-age mother's attempts at pig reiki are an embarrassment. But Maddie befriends the farmer's daughter, Anna, and between dodging her mother and doing her chores, she finds the perfect subject for the portrait contest.
This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!
Contributor Notes
Christy Goerzen has never performed Reiki on a pig. Farmed Out is her second entry in the Orca Currents series. Christy lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age:
- 9 to 12
- Grade:
- 4 to 7
- Reading age:
- 9 to 12
Editorial Reviews
"Readers will identify with the disagreements and the embarassmet Maddie's mother causes for her at times. They will also identify with the need to find their own way in the world and the power a friend can provide on that journey."
— Resource Links
"Maddie is an energetic protagonist young readers will readily identify with and want to follow through her ordeal. They will understand Maddie's anger at being pulled from her own life into her mother's chaotic world...The details of a first-time-farm experience seen through Maddie's eyes are diverse and completely genuine, and Goerzen succeeds in adding depth to an otherwise predictable mother-daughter breakaway story with a subplot that takes Maddie into a world that is more complex than what she imagined New York city would be and one which ultimately lifts her out of herself. Recommended."
— CM: Canadian Review of Materials
"Goerzen writes well from a teen perspective, capturing Maddie's smart-alecky but self-conscious attitude, especially toward her oblivious mother."
— Booklist
