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Book Review: Camp
Nov. 25th, 2019 09:38 amI’ve gone on a bit of a graphic novel spree recently, and just read Kayla Miller’s Camp, in which two friends, Olive and Willow, go to summer camp together. Olive dives into camp activities, while Willow won’t join in and tries to make Olive spend all of her time with her.
In the days of my youth I was 100% a Willow, which may be why I found Willow so gosh darn frustrating to read about. Or not exactly Willow herself, but I felt that the narrative didn’t deal honestly with the situation, which should have been much more emotionally messy than the book portrayed. When Olive doesn’t knuckle under to spend every minute of every day with Willow, Willow doesn't just sulk; she ( Spoilers )
I’ve noticed a trend recently in children’s books of unnaturally good children, like the modern-day version of Victorian Sunday school book characters, and everyone in this book except Willow fits right into this mold. If you’re going to set your characters up as a moral example, then you’d better be damn sure that they are, in fact, setting a good example that children would do well to follow.
In the days of my youth I was 100% a Willow, which may be why I found Willow so gosh darn frustrating to read about. Or not exactly Willow herself, but I felt that the narrative didn’t deal honestly with the situation, which should have been much more emotionally messy than the book portrayed. When Olive doesn’t knuckle under to spend every minute of every day with Willow, Willow doesn't just sulk; she ( Spoilers )
I’ve noticed a trend recently in children’s books of unnaturally good children, like the modern-day version of Victorian Sunday school book characters, and everyone in this book except Willow fits right into this mold. If you’re going to set your characters up as a moral example, then you’d better be damn sure that they are, in fact, setting a good example that children would do well to follow.
