Summer on the Short Bus - Softcover

Crandall, Bethany

3.57

605 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0762449519 ISBN 13: 9780762449514

Publisher: Running Press Kids, 2014

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Cricket Montgomery has been thrown under the short bus. Shipped off to a summer camp by her father, Cricket is forced to play babysitter to a bunch of whiny kids—or so she thinks. When she realizes this camp is actually for teens with special needs, Cricket doubts she has what it takes to endure twenty-four hours, let alone two weeks.

Thanks to her dangerously cute co-counselor, Quinn, there may be a slim chance for survival. However, between the campers' unpredictability and disregard for personal space, Cricket's limits get pushed. She will have to decide if suffering through her own handicapped hell is worth a summer romance—and losing her sanity.

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About the Author:

Bethany Crandell writes young adult novels because the feelings that come with life's "first" times are too good not to relive again and again. Summer on the Short Bus is Crandell's debut. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two daughters, one of whom is differently-abled. Visit Bethany online at bethanycrandell.com and Twitter @bethanycrandell.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 8 Up—Rich, spoiled, and entitled, the last thing 17-year-old Constance, aka Cricket, wants to do is work as a counselor at a special needs summer camp. She had been planning on spending her vacation in Maui with best friend Katie, but after the ill-advised party she hosted at the riding stables, her furious dad ships her off to Camp I Can for a two-week stint as a counselor. Cricket spends the first part of her stay scheming escape routes while trying to have as little to do as possible with the campers, who, for the most part, have Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. On the bright side, there is fellow counselor Quinn, a Zac Efron doppelg�nger, who is as nice as he is cute. Over the course of two very bumpy weeks, Cricket develops an appreciation for the camp and its denizens and matures a great deal—largely due to Quinn's positive influence. The special needs kids are not particularly well-developed characters, although they are endearing and quirky—and two weeks is perhaps an unrealistic amount of time for the protagonist's personality transformation. Despite this, the novel is heartwarming and funny, mainly because of Cricket's scathingly honest politically incorrect internal and external dialogue. Highly entertaining—this book will appeal to reluctant readers.—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, NY

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