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 Abby's Camp Day Series is a Must for All Camp Lovers Past & Present May 04, 2012
By Tyler R. Tichelaar
"Superior Book Promotions - Marquette Fiction"
"Abby's Camp Days" is a series of novels about Abby and her friends as they enjoy attending summer Bible camp and learn about God, life, and boys along the way. Author Jenifer Brady plans to write ten books in the series, each one covering one year of camp, beginning with Abby's first camp adventure in Camp Expert when she is nine. To date, four volumes in the series have been annually released, the others in order being Favorite Camper, Cabin Secrets, and Lost Swimmer Drill.
While I had reservations that I might find the books to be too "churchy, girly, or young" for my interests, I was sucked in right away by Abby, her friends, and their camp spirit. Brady's writing style is light on the Bible side and big on depicting realistic experiences from Abby's viewpoint. In the first book, Abby is a self-proclaimed "camp expert" during her first year at elementary camp because her dad is a camp dean and she has already had camp experiences. She is determined to fix what is wrong with camp. Abby's religious ideas are appropriate for her age, and readers can't help but smile over her thoughts when she's frustrated with her counselors, such as, "I think Jesus would let me walk on the railroad tracks if He went to Mount Spirit with us." She also wishes she could use the Martha and Mary story as an excuse to get out of vacuuming the living room when guests come over.
Abby soon, however, finds herself enjoying camp, and her fellow campers and counselors' antics add to the general spirit of camp fun, making me recall the joy of my own summer Bible camp days. The cast of characters includes Abby's best-friend Carin, who is boy crazy, determined to become a famous actress, and who has a huge crush on the much older counselor Dane. Also in Abby's circle of friends is Dane's sister Rachel, who can't find anything attractive about her older brother, and Lindsay, a quiet girl from Ishpeming.
As the books progress and the girls grow up, we watch them learn about the boys' bathroom, experience their first camp romances, and come to terms with difficult events in their life. Jenifer Brady writes like the Judy Blume for a new generation as she "tells it like it is" for her youthful readers; she does not shy away from reality or discussing issues relevant to young adults today from divorce, to the death of a friend, and the heartbreak of camp romance.
And Brady can write hilarious dialogue. I roared with laughter through many pages of the books. Whether it's the taco eating contest between the boy counselors, the scary campfire ghost stories, the mean counselor getting pushed into the lake, or the humor of skit night, Brady knows camp well and she depicts it perfectly. One of my favorite moments is a skit night scene where Abby's group pretends to be on a game show with Jesus as one of the contestants; when he wins the camp gimp (bracelets the campers make), Abby wonders whether Jesus will multiply the gimp like He did the fish and loaves. Another hilarious scene is when one of the girl counselors tries to teach Abby and her friends how to flirt with boys, resulting in some comical conversations about sports.
Brady's decision to tell the story through Abby's eyes provides a narrator young adults can relate to, as will any adult who has ever been to camp or just remembers what it is to be a kid. Abby's 9-12 year old viewpoint in these first four volumes reflects her slowly maturing and coming to understand the world around her. She learns about life and God, and she watches her counselors develop their own relationships while not always understanding what is going on with them; I found the counselor subplots Abby observes to be fascinating because Brady has written two more books Super Counselors and Buddy Check that take place at the same time as the "Abby's Camp Days" series but are told from the counselors' viewpoints. Needless to say, I can't wait to read these two additional volumes to find out what Abby doesn't know about her favorite counselors.
Brady herself is a second generation camper who has also been a counselor and camp dean. She and her husband love camp so much that they were married in the camp chapel.
The mark of a truly great children's author is the ability to write a book that will appeal to both children and adults and Brady has succeeded. I would have loved these books as a preteen, and I love them now. I am sure anyone who loves summer camp will feel the same.
- Tyler Tichelaar - this review first appeared in the Marquette Monthly, August 2011, and is reprinted with permission.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Camp Expert by Jenifer Brady Dec 04, 2011
By onyx95
"-Debbie"
Going to camp every year with her family made it so Abby was prepared for her first year of elementary camp alone. Arriving at camp registration only to find that none of the camp counselors that she knew where going to be there left her a little nervous, but she was bound determined to not let a few new faces scare her away. Learning all the new rules was the hard part, as the deans daughter at junior high camp, she was given run of the place and options of which activities she wanted to take part of. As a camper of the elementary camp, she had restrictions on when to do what, she didn't like that at all. Wondering how she was ever going to have fun at camp with all these rules, Abby set out to change a few. Her only goal was to make it more fun for everyone, she couldn't understand why her friend Carin could be enjoying herself, but she seemed to be. The only problem was that the harder Abby tried to make things how she was used to from junior high camp, the less fun she was having all the while watching while everyone else seemed to be having a great time with the way things where.
***
Sometimes the best way to learn a lesson is to live through it. Abby did that. Things may have been different but she learned that sometimes those differences are a good thing. While this story did put out a good lesson, I had a difficult time getting interested in any of the characters. They are youths and this story is written for youths but I really found all of them superficial and at times annoying. So much could have been handled different and that may have been part of the story, but for a church camp I would have hoped for better staff reactions to some of it. Like I said, this is a book about youths for youths, the simplicity of the writing style may suit them, but it did not me. It looks as though Jenifer Brady has written several other books about camping to go along with this one.
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