Synopsis
With Susan Wojciechowski's sure-handed touch for capturing the real concerns of a regular kid, this enormously entertaining Beany book will have middle-grade readers laughing with recognition.
In BEANY GOES TO CAMP, school is out, but Beany does not want to go to Camp Onondaga! A funny, famililar tale of angst — and unexpected accomplishment — at summer camp.
Susan Hepler - Children's Literature
Beany is deposited at Camp Onandaga feeling sure that she will hate it. And she does for the first day, although there are signs all around her that she'll make friends. Skye in the bunk beside her can't swim, cries herself to sleep, and is late to breakfast on the first day. But compassionate Beany befriends her, the two help each other get used to camp, and Beany's bossy friend Carol Ann gets her way. The cabin wins first place as best cabin of the week but it is because of Beany's and Skye's brave acts of learning to swim and dive. Each chapter shows Beany accepting more of camp and becoming more active, her friendly and supportive counselor Daisy making things familiar and easy for her, and what camp life is like. For the experienced camper, this book sounds just right and for the nervous would-be one, it should be reassuring. The endpapers feature lines from four letters Beany sends showing that things will turn out_but the reader has to discover how. Crisply told and with humor (there are plenty of lame "dad jokes" Beany tells), great camp details, frequent black and white illustrations which depict characters with friendliness, and medium-length chapters give this book plenty of appeal to middle elementary school girl readers. It's the fourth in the "Beany" series. 2002, Candlewick,