2023 EDIT: Part of my 2023 clear-up, of books I no longer like, or am no longer interested in, or remember well as standing out, or find as special anymore, or I otherwise will not miss.
[In this case, it is me letting go of all of Jacqueline Wilson's books; ultimately decided after rereading 'Hetty Feather'. A lot of them have not aged well, in my opinion, or are just baffling, shocking. I cannot abide the author's child abuse-excusing, fatphobic, internalised misogyny-filled, and sometimes ableist books for children. There are often other other problematic tropes and clichés, too. It doesn't matter if they're childhood favourites, or are "cute and harmless". If I can let go of 'Harry Potter', then I can do the same for these books, no problem. Goodbye, Jacqueline Wilson.]
Final Score: 3.5/5
2021 EDIT: A fun children's classic.
The beginning is a bit rough. Two of the adult characters, Miss Hamer-Cotton and Uncle Ron, are the worst, and the dialogue can get hokey, ridiculous and repetitive. But I loved most of the characters, and enjoyed the stories that Stella Stebbings made up.
Speaking of: Stella, while still a bit of a crybaby, has a backbone and is far snarkier and wittier than your average Jacqueline Wilson child protagonist. I admire her sense of humour, her spunk, her sticking up for herself and others, and her individuality and unapologetically breaking rules. She is kind and caring towards the nice and innocent, as well - and towards animals. It's good that she's loud, moody and cheeky, and stands up in the face of injustice. Adding in her slight macabre streak, her imagination, neat ideas and her writing her own fairy tales, and she's my kind of cool subversive heroine.
'How to Survive Summer Camp'? Be creative! Be imaginative and proactive, and show initiative. And make friends. Learn that there are nice and helpful kids and adults out there, not just the horrible ones.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
Oh, how I adored this!
There is a lot to like about 'How to Survive Summer Camp': The stubborn and kind of bratty main girl, Stella Stebbings (great name), who despite acting and looking like a boy (after a disastrous haircut), is pretty girly and loves to write stories about princesses and fairy tales. She owns a big, old and expensive fairy tale book; her prized possession along with her stuffed toy, Squeakycheese. Like many of Jacqueline Wilson's protagonists, she's very creative and imaginative, and prefers to keep to herself at first. There's an arc of Stella's about being afraid to swim.
I liked the activities at the camp, both the physical and the artistic, and seeing the kids start to develop and work together as a team. The child characters other than Stella are also lovely, especially cute little Rosemary, and new bestie Marzipan, who is picked on for her name and for being fat, but not by Stella. The adult characters also have daft names, like Miss Hamer-Cotton.
Yeah, two of Stella's roommates, Louise and Karen, are absolutely awful, and that one boy, James, pretentiously speaks only in rhyme (who does that? Certainly not a real poet). Louise and Karen are possibly racist too, if how they first talk to the only black camper, Janie, is anything to go by, as if they weren't hateful enough. Though the book was published in 1985.
Then there's the mystery of the noises at the camp dorms at night. And Stella setting up her own magazine print.
Overall, 'How to Survive Summer Camp' is such a fun read for children, containing good lessons to teach them, like friendship, getting along with people, and accepting change. I liked seeing these characters interact and learn from each other during camp activities. The writing is also a bit more mature and descriptive than in most children's books by Jacqueline Wilson. I related to a lot about the fantasy storytelling and magazine stuff in it.
A sweet, relatable and fantastic treat.
Final Score: 4/5
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