Help! I'm Trapped in the First Day of Summer Camp

Been there. Done that.

Jake Sherman's going to sleepaway camp for the first time. He's not allowed to share a bunk with his best friends Andy and Josh, so he's a little worried about fitting in with the other campers. And his sister Jessica keeps warning him that the impression you make on the first day of camp is the one that stays with you for the summer. So Jake is off to Camp Walton..and he'sdetermined to make his first day of camp a great start for the rest of the summer. Jake spends the entire first day of camp making sure he fits in with the cool guys, playing practical jokes on a nerdy guy named Peter Peeling. Jake feels pretty bad about it by the end of the day and he swears that if he had to do it all over again, he would do it differently.That's just what he gets the chance to do...because when Jake wakes up the next morning, he's back on the bus, heading to Camp Walton for the first time...again! At first, Jake's glad to have the chance to redeem himself. This time, he does it all right: he sticks up for Peter,and turns the cool guys into into victims of their own pranks. Jake is sure that he's earned the "right" to move on to the second day. But when he wakes up the next day, he's back on that same bus heading to Camp Walton for the first time...again! And again...and again...and again! Each time Jake goes through the first day of camp, he tries a different way to spend the day. But nothing seems to work. Will Jake ever get out of the first day of summer camp? Or will he have to eat American Chop Suey for lunch everyday for the rest of his life?!

Todd Strasser is the author of more than 130 books for teens and middle graders including the 17-book Help! I'm Trapped In series, and numerous award-winning YA novels, including The Wave, Give a Boy a Gun, and Boot Camp. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he has also written for television, newspapers, and magazines such as The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times. Each year he speaks at dozens of schools from coast to coast, as well as at numerous state and regional conferences for teachers and media specialists. You can learn more about Todd and his books at www.toddstrasser.com.