The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring; Or, Along the Road That Leads the Way

Hildegard Gertrude FreyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.6
Word count
305K words
Chapters
31

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature Road TripCampus LifeFriendship YearsGirls' AdventureGrowing UpLight ReadingSocial ObservationAmerican SceneFemale PerspectiveYouth Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring; Or, Along the Road That Leads the Way by FreyAuthor: Frey, Hildegard G., 1891-1957,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Nov 1, 2004

Editor's review

This title is one volume in the early twentieth-century American "Camp Fire Girls" series of juvenile fiction, in which Hildegard G. Frey recounts in a light tone the sights the girls encounter on a motoring trip. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies not in complex literary technique but in offering a window onto American girls' social life, travel, and ideas of growing up a century ago: the automobile was just entering ordinary households, and girls setting off together on the road was itself a fresh declaration of independence. The descriptions of travel details, companionship, and small mishaps read plainly and with a strong period flavor. It suits light English reading, and is also well suited to readers interested in early juvenile literature, narratives of female growth, or the history of American social life. There is no need to seek dramatic tension; read it as a slow-paced road companion, and the period vocabulary and customs woven through it prove the most rewarding.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the first and last chapters first to grasp the character relationships, then read straight through in travel order; no need to look up every unfamiliar word.
  2. Jot down period details such as transport, clothing, and camp activities as you go; reviewing them after finishing is more rewarding.
  3. For English study, read one or two chapters a day, note colloquial expressions in dialogue, and imitate them in retelling.
  4. Read alongside other early girls' coming-of-age novels to see the shared period features of the genre.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly? Not really for absolute beginners. The sentence structures are not complex, but the book dates from the early twentieth century, and some vocabulary, slang, and everyday expressions now feel dated. Readers with intermediate English who can tolerate a few unfamiliar words will read it smoothly with a dictionary.
How is the story related to the Camp Fire Girls organization? This is one of a series of novels featuring Camp Fire Girls as characters; the focus is on the girls' experiences and interactions on a motoring trip, not on a systematic introduction to the organization's rules or activities. Readers need no prior knowledge of the organization to follow the story.
Why is this book released by Project Gutenberg? Project Gutenberg provides digitized ebooks whose copyright has entered the public domain, and this book is one of the public-domain texts it releases. Readers can therefore obtain it free, but such editions usually carry no modern notes, so readers must research the period background themselves.
What can readers get from this book? Mainly a relaxed English reading experience and a direct impression of American girls' travel and social life a century ago. It offers no tight plot and is better browsed as a sample of early juvenile literature.

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About the author

Hildegard Gertrude Frey Author · American · 1891–1957

Hildegard Gertrude Frey (1891–1957) was an American children's author who lived her whole life in Cleveland, Ohio. Public information about her is limited. Her writing centers on the ten-volume Camp Fire Girls series, which she produced between 1916 and 1920 for the publisher A. L. Burt. The books follow the outdoor lives of the Winnebago Camp Fire Girls of Cleveland, moving from the woods of Maine and motoring trips to paddling at camp and a Christmas mystery, blending everyday escapades with puzzle-solving adventure. The style is brisk and plain, stressing cooperation, work, and closeness to nature. The series was the only fiction of its kind officially recognized by the Camp Fire Girls organization and is representative of girls' reading of the period.