Camp Rules - Hardcover

Roter, Jordan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525478035 ISBN 13: 9780525478034

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 2007

Synopsis

Arriving at Fern Lake Camp for the first time, Penny Moore has high expectations for an amazing summer, but when the established girls of Bunk One focus on their designer clothes and exclusive clique, Penny is certain to rub people the wrong way when she refuses to play along with their games.

About this title

About the Author

Jordan Roter attended sleepaway camp in Maine for six summers and still misses it. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews

Grade 6–9—For her 16th birthday, Penny Moore's parents give her the gift of six weeks at summer camp. It's not what she wanted, so she makes an agreement with them: when they come to visit her after a month, if she still wants to go home, she can. Her first days there are not promising. Penny discovers that her bunkmates are loud, crude, rude, and mean. They've all been together for years, and Penny is an outsider. Even if not for that, the teen still can't figure out why they like being there so much; she sees no fun in any of their silly antics. So she decides to try to get sent home. Her efforts backfire, but she does gain the respect of her bunkmates and, in time, their friendship. Penny even wins over Logan Worthe, her arch enemy. When her parents visit—big surprise—Penny no longer wants to go home. She's grown to like the cheers, the sports, the camp routines, and the other girls. In the end Penny realizes that the girls like camp because it allows them to act like kids again. That may've been true for the author, who spent many summers at camp, but her story isn't convincing. The theme is too light to carry an entire book, the characters aren't well developed, and the many episodes don't add up to much. Teens will not be compelled to keep turning the pages in this ho-hum story.—Catherine Ensley, Latah County Free Library District, Moscow, ID
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On Penny's sixteenth birthday, she receives an unexpected, unwanted, and downright upsetting present from her parents: eight weeks at a girl's camp in Maine. The only new resident of the privileged inner sanctum that is Bunk One at Fern Lake Camp, she enters a strange new world of camp cheers and long-term friendships. One of her fellow campers is Logan Worthe, leader of the most powerful clique at their private high school in Manhattan and the only person more eager than Penny to see her go home. Roter shows the seesaw of Penny's emotions as well as her realization that one can create a different identity away from home and school. Other characters are more lightly sketched but distinct and believable. This very readable novel portrays a teenager's insecurity as the new girl breaking into a set of old friends as well as the comforting routine, the sometimes low humor, and the occasional breakout madness of life at a girl's camp. Phelan, Carolyn

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525478035
• ISBN 13: 9780525478034
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272