The girls are excited because they have figured out that Jess and Emma are going to be co-counselors to the youngest girls, Becca and Megan will be co-counselors for the eight year olds, and Cassidy volunteered to be a co-counselor with another girl named Amanda to the nine year olds. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. It turns out that there has been a change. A counselor who had planning on coming to camp had a family emergency, and now Jess is moving up and Emma is going to be co-counselors with...Felicia! Felicia Grunewald, Jess' cousin. Immediately Emma knows that this is going to be one disastrous summer.
And summer certainly has its' bumps. The youngest campers are beyond homesick, Emma is still heartbroken over breaking up with Stewart, and Cassidy seems to be rubbing stalwart head counselor Marge Gearhart the wrong way. Plus there is Felicia with her sackbut (look it up!) to contend with.
The shenanigans you'd expect in a summer camp novel are all here, complete with a boy's camp across the lake, pranks and competitions. The girls bring their bookclub to their campers as a way to ease their homesickness. The book of choice this time is Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
All in all this is a fun ending to a great series. The girls are put in the mothering role and rise to the occasion. Their parents make appearances midway through camp as well as through letters and phone calls. Readers will be able to figure out that Vogel Frederick was a camper herself, and many of the happenings at Camp Lovejoy were mined from her own experiences. I do have to say, I think that a few of the traditions that are at Camp Lovejoy would not actually fly at a camp today -- specifically the one involving the peanuts. That said, these things weren't make or break moments for me.
This will be a treasured series for many, many years to come. I have had students read through all of them as well as the books that the girls read in their book club. We *never* have the full series on the shelf at once and this is a series that kids recommend to each other all the time. If your kid didn't take this book to camp, mail it on out!
0 Comments on Mother-Daughter Book Camp, by Heather Vogel Frederick as of 7/19/2016 9:55:00 PM
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Oh good, I hate to see a sad monkey. Oh, except those stupid Hanuman langurs all over the temples in India. They're damn mean.
Editing, ah! It's our only way to reclaim the sanity we lose while writing.
Katey, that's the best description of it I've ever heard.
Hang in there, Cate, and just keep on trucking. You know it'll be worth it in the end.
and for some reason the animated broken, bleeding heart makes me chuckle...
good luck with your edits!
I don't call it editing. I call it revising. It sounds so much more technical and sophisticated. (That, and it tricks me into it until the inevitable, "Hey, I'm editing!")
You should probably add a monkey (exploding or not) to your story, because every story benefits from extra monkey.
Good luck on the editing! Word verification: buglecry. Even the bugle is sad that you have to edit.
Monkeys freak me out. They're ripe for horror!
I aim to never reclaim sanity, Katey.
Oh, I'm having fun editing, Simon. I love this part.
So it should, Kara.
I hated 'revising' at school, Aaron. Editing makes me feel like a grown up.
Don't tempt me, Kate (there's enough madness in it as it is)
Ha! Natalie :D