Walden, But With Bug Spray

When sixteen-year-old Lucy May says yes to an experiential Walden honors project, she isn't entirely sure what she's agreeing to.

As a homeschooled student dual-enrolled at her local community college, she is used to working hard and aiming high, but nothing has prepared her for weeks in a tent on her family's rural property, daily journaling for her summer American Literature class, and more time alone than she has ever wanted.

What begins as an academic challenge quickly becomes something far more personal. Between storms, sleepless nights, raccoons, and the quiet discomfort of being left alone with her own thoughts, Lucy finds herself confronting fears she would rather avoid and insecurities she can no longer outrun.

In class, a polished older student seems to embody everything Lucy isn't: confident, composed, and effortlessly impressive. But out by the pond, with only her journal and the truth for company, Lucy begins to discover something deeper than performance.

As the summer unfolds through tender family moments, small humiliations, unexpected courage, and hard-won honesty on the page, Lucy starts to realize that growth rarely looks dramatic while it's happening. Sometimes it looks like staying. Sometimes it looks like telling the truth. Sometimes it looks like becoming someone stronger without noticing until you already are.

Warm, reflective, and gently funny, Walden, But With Bug Spray is a coming-of-age novel about self-discovery, quiet bravery, and learning that being enough was never the same thing as being perfect.