When I was young, I loved Ann M. Martin’s books. Of course, I read The Baby-Sitter’s Club, but I also looked up everything else she wrote. The book I received for review consideration seemed eerily familiar as I read it, so I’m pretty sure I visited this once before.
Bummer Summer by Ann M. Martin (Open Road Media, April 2014) was originally published in 1983 and now it is being issued by Open Road Media as an ebook. This book is such a fun summer read. Kammy’s dad has just remarried a woman with a baby and a three-year-old girl, and her life is now turned upside down! She doesn’t want to lose her place in her house and her dad’s heart but they want her to spend the summer at Camp Arrowhead. Can she survive away from home? It is sure to be a bummer summer.Â
Of course, for those who read lots of books and can predict, her summer is anything but a bummer. In this day and age, I’m not sure that people spend eight weeks at summer camp all that often. It sure sounds like fun to me to do arts and crafts, horseback riding, and swimming for eight weeks.
Although the title (bummer) and setting of the book (camp) seem to indicate that this is about her summer, it is about so much more: it’s about a girl who is coming of age finding her place in the world, adjusting to a new relationship, and also to being a big sister. It’s quite fun to see Kammy’s progression throughout the book. I only wish I could have heard how the rest of camp went for her that summer!
Because it was originally published in the 1980s, I loved that there was chastity in it. Of course, nothing was mentioned in the text. However, Kate and her daughter moved in after the wedding, which is not what probably would happen today. Today’s society probably would have been fine with Kate and her daughter moving in and foregoing the marriage altogether. I am glad the author did not do that. I really appreciated the fact that marriage was still a part of the story in a book for young kids.
Note: I received a digital review copy.
