Synopsis
When Jamie Keller's father is killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb, her mother decides to combat the financial and emotional stress by moving the family from Hamilton, Ohio to the rural town of Promise, Oregon.
Fourteen-year-old Jamie narrates the tale of the journey, intermingling descriptions of family dynamics with her own personal philosophy of life.
The victims of Jamie's scrutiny include: older sister Jenny, who listens to praise music and wears a WWJD bracelet; younger brother Jake, contained and brainy, with know-it-all tendencies; and little sister Jana, lover of animals and sometimes the comic relief.
In Reno, Nevada, the mystery begins when Jamie's mother fails to pick the kids up at the mall as had been previously arranged.
After waiting for hours in the blazing heat, brother Jake finally goes in search of his mom only to return with an amazing story. He has located the car, and everything in it is intact (including the family's pet cats), but Mrs. Keller is nowhere to be found. Intensive searching proves futile. Their mother has vanished!
Nervous about becoming wards of the state of Nevada, and fearful of being put in separate foster homes, the Keller kids decide to avoid authority, choosing instead to take the gamble, and continue on to Promise, Oregon.
On the way into town, a giant JESUS banner is the first sign that Promise is in a bible belt. Jenny is thrilled, Jamie, not so.
Upon arriving at the ranch, the Kellers are met with further disappointment when they discover that the 'ranch' is nothing more than an old trailer, situated off the grid. Jake is in his element, with the challenge of solar panels, batteries and generators, but the girls are far from enchanted.
War, religion, world peace, inner peace, dealing with financial stress and self sufficiency are some of the key topics in this often humorous story story.
Off the Grid is a contemporary novelette directed at a young teen audience but enjoyed by all ages.
Excerpt
By the time we got to Reno the whole idea of having anything to do with my family completely lost its charm. I hated these people! Even Jana was whining, and Jake’s ability to stay so distant and calm was rattling my cage, too. Speaking of cages, I hadn’t mentioned how the cats were faring in all of this. I hadn’t mentioned how they pooped in Nebraska, forcing us to drive with the windows down, in over one-hundred degree heat. We suffered for over an hour, without air conditioning, until we could get to the rest stop and clean the cage. Poor Isaiah and Schwartz, they were panting, and so miserable. We were seriously concerned for them.
And then, there was Jenny. For being such a Christian, it amazed me how blatantly materialistic she was. Her mall withdrawal was just plain annoying, and she wouldn’t let it go; begging Mom to stop at every mall we saw along the way, and then sulking till the next, when it would start all over again. I imagined she had to be holding out some of her own funds if she wanted to get to the mall so badly. However, Jenny had certain leverage here, because her birthday was three days after we got the news about Dad. It was a shame she’d had such a sad fifteenth birthday, but she was milking it for all it was worth. Lucky for her, Jana had left all her underwear (in the form of clean laundry) on Cousin Robin’s bed, back in Hamilton, and was putting in her own pleas for replacements.
