SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: August 2021] Secrets of Camp Whatever
I’m not sure who brought this book home, my wife or my daughter, but I was pretty delighted to read it.
Two kids are heading to the town of Nowhere with their parents. They are moving into their father’s mother’s old house on the outskirts of town. It’s a small town and when they pull into the local diner, the waitress tells them to turn around and go back home… that place is haunted. But the local museum owner, Henry Person, tells them not to believe that nonsense.
He says that Nowhere is known for unusual things–monsters in the lakes, elves in the forest, even a bigfoot sighting. But the fog is so thick no one can confirm anything.
Willow is going to summer camp and is not particularly pleased about it. Her younger brother Gryphon is not going to camp, but he really wants to. Where’s the justice? When their mother hears about the fog and the creepiness around the camp she wonders whether they should even send WIllow.
But the kids’ dad when to Camp … Whatever like a million years ago and he is pretty excited for Willow to go. He can’t wait for her to hear all about the camp at the opening campfire. Even if a kid did go missing the year he was there… and was never heard from again.
But Mr Person says the camp hired a new camp director … Clarence Tooter, a big game hunter. He’ll keep the place safe.
A nice touch is that Willow uses a hearing aid, but it’s not a big deal to the story. Except that Mr Tooter believes she is deaf and so he yells at here whenever he sees her. And that sign language is very important to the story (although the reader doesn’t need to know it).
But Willow is cool and she quickly makes a friend on the boat ride over to camp. And this new friend, Violet, even knows sign language a little. It’s her first time going to camp as well.
Of course, they quickly make enemies with a jerky boy named Kurt. Kurt’s younger brother Rand is cool though.
By the time they get settled in, Willow is solidly friendly with the four girls in her cabin: WIllow, Violet, Emma and Molly.
Things are pretty creepy from the get go, though. Garden gnomes in weird poses all around the island, more fog than you can imagine, and creepy creatures in the shadows. And the rules? Don’t go deeper than your knees in the water or something might get you. Do go into the dense fog or something might get you. And don’t forget the fog leeches.
Everyone goes out to hear Tooter’s speech (“I don’t like children and plan to stay away from you”), but Willow hangs back in her room and sees….a hairy hand come out from under one of the bunks.
They meet some of the other kids at dinner (the cook is like totally a vampire). Rand seems cool and asks to learn some sign language. There’s the Stump Twins (they don’t answer to their first names) who are really rather disgusting. And they sort of meet Mr Elric, a weird guy who seems to hang out in the woods and who doesn’t seem to want to be bothered.
That first night all of the girls’ snacks are mysteriously taken away, and there’s a kind of gross substance lying around. Willow and Violet sneak around and they see Mr Elric talking to all of these concrete gnomes. What the heck? He tells the girls that the gnomes are all real and he is trying to guess their names. If you say a gnome’s name it can break out of its concrete shell.
The girls kind of back away slowly and notice a hole in the ground with evidence of snacks in it. Mr Elric stole their snacks?
They sneak back in the cabin under the snoring eye of the counsellor–I love the jokes about how she tries to catch them sneaking out but is pretty much asleep the whole time. Those possums!
Willow is clearly motivated to figure out what’s going on, but she has a personal motive as well–her hearing aid batteries were in with her junk food. And she needs them back. Indeed, there’s a few pages where the batteries run out, and Grine handles the scene really well.
That night the girls go hunting around the island again, and this time they learn a lot more about what’s going on. Indeed, it’s a lot more than they expected. In fact, part of what they find explains the real reason why Mr Tooter is at camp.
This book is only volume 1. It ends with a satisfying conclusion (not a cliffhanger ending) and yet it leaves a lot open for future volumes. I really want to know what happens when she gets back home–how will her dad react? Will her brother go next year (and why didn’t he go this year?) And could the camp ever change if people knew just what was going on? No that would be a disaster, I’m sure.
I really like the drawing style that Grine uses. The characters are all distinctive (giving Willow purple hair was pretty smart, although calling her best friend Violet was a little confusing). The adult characters are all bizarre looking. Mr. Tooter has huge buck teeth, Mr Elric has a chin that is longer than the rest of his head. It’s a pretty distinctive look for the book. However, everyone (almost everyone) has soft and welcoming features, which makes the book a real joy to look at.
Volume 2 comes out in May. I’m really looking forward to it.
Leave a Reply