Freckled: a memoir of growing up wild in hawaii - tw neal

For fans of The Glass Castle and Educated, comes mystery author Toby Neals personal story of surviving a wild childhood in paradise.

We never call it homeless.

Were just camping in the jungle on Kauai.

We live in a place everyone calls paradise.

Sure, Kauais beautiful, with empty beaches, drip-castle mountains, and perfect surf.

but weve been camping for six months, eating boiled chicken feed for breakfast, and wearing camouflage clothes so no one sees us trespassing in our jungle hideout.

The cockroaches 1/2leave rainbow colors all over everything from eating the crayons we left outside the tent, and now a tractor is coming to scrape our camp into the river.

Standing in front of the tent in my nightgown, clinging to my sister as we face the tractor, I know my own truth: I just want to be normal.

But Mom and Pop are addicted.

Addicted to Kauais beauty, to drugs, to surfing, to living a life according to their own rules out from under their high-achieving parents judgmental eyes.

Im just their red-headed, mouthy, oldest kid.

What I want doesnt matter.

But Im smart.

I will make a different life for myself someday if I keep up my grades no matter what happens.

No matter how often we run out of food.

No matter how many times I change schools.

or dont go to school at all.

No matter how many bullies beat me up for the color of my skin.

I might be growing up wild in Hawaii, but I have dreams Im going to reach, no matter how crazy things get.

An affecting and riveting chronicle of a singular childhood that evokes the contradictions of hippie utopian ideals in an unspoiled Hawaiian landscape long since lost.

Kirkus Reviews.