Alone
When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten. She escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals as the months' pass. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?
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Twelve-year-old Maddie sneaks a sleepover and wakes up to a deserted town, mysteriously evacuated overnight. With her grandmother's old dog, she figures out how to live until someone comes back.
Yes. Alone is a middle-grade novel-in-verse by Megan E. Freeman, published in 2021. The free-verse format makes it accessible to readers who find prose intimidating, while keeping the story emotionally rich.
Alone is recommended for readers 9 to 12, with appeal for older readers as well. The protagonist Maddie is 12, and the survival story is intense but not graphic. It is widely used in middle-school classrooms.
Alone was written by Megan E. Freeman, published in 2021 by Aladdin.
Alone is 404 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Alone takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Alone is a standalone novel by Megan E. Freeman, not part of a series.
Alone is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.