Tag Archives: Summer Camp

Review: Loveboat Forever by Abigail Hing Wen

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Loveboat Forever by Abigail Hing Wen

Loveboat Forever (Loveboat, Taipei #3)
Abigail Hing Wen
HarperCollins
Published November 7, 2023

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About Loveboat Forever

Return to the sparkling world of Loveboat, this time with Pearl Wong, on an entirely new, romantic, whirlwind adventure from Abigail Hing Wen, New York Times bestselling author of Loveboat, Taipei!

Pearl was ready for a worldwide stage. Instead, she needs to stage a comeback.

Seventeen-year-old music prodigy Pearl Wong had the summer of her dreams planned—until a fall from grace leaves her in need of new plans…and a new image.

Where better to revamp her “brand” than at Chien Tan, the Taipei summer program for elite students that rocketed her older sister, Ever, on a path to romance and self-fulfillment years ago.

But as the alumni know, Chien Tan is actually Loveboat—the extravagant world where prodigies party till dawn—and there’s more awaiting Pearl there than she could have ever imagined, like a scandalous party in the dark, a romantic entanglement with a mysterious suitor…and a summer that will change her forever.

Sweeping, glamorous, and deeply soulful, this companion to the New York Times bestselling novel Loveboat, Taipei and Loveboat Reunion will reunite readers with their favorite characters, in a thrilling new journey of romance, self-discovery, and empowerment. Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Dessen.  

My Review

I really enjoyed Loveboat, Taipei, but this book is truly something special. Pearl, who appears as a minor character in the first book, takes the lead in this story. She’s a musician, so lots of the ways she describes things have a connection to music. She also plays the piano in several scenes and learns a new instrument called a pipa, or a Chinese lute.

True to Loveboat form, Pearl has a summer romance and finds herself drawn to two different boys for very different reasons. One is open and friendly and interested in the kind of music she’s trained so hard to play. The other is surly and frank and doesn’t seem interested in her until he teaches her to play the pipa.

But as she gets to know both boys and learns more about her own family history, she discovers that there’s more to her than being a classical pianist, and she wants to explore these things. She begins examining her feelings about music (her preference for Western composers, for example) and what it means to be a Chinese American musician.

At one point, she meets her mom’s extended family while trying to track down proof of her connection to her great-grandmother, a professional pipa musician. I loved those scenes and how they changed her path forward in the book.

Conclusion

Honestly, this has to be my favorite book in the series so far, and I absolutely need to read more of Abigail Hing Wen’s work. This story has layers for days. From the romance to the explorations about a musician’s identity to how we treat Chinese American artists to the power and strength of community, this book has so much to offer.

If you haven’t read the other books in the series, you could still start with this one, but it will spoil the endings of the other books. If you plan to read all three, start with Loveboat, Taipei first.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 13 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Few instances of profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing and brief touching under a shirt.

Spiritual Content
Pearl’s family is Christian. She references her family history and her grandfather’s conversion to Christianity and her questions about the context of that conversion after she visits a place where he lived and worked.

Violent Content
Pearl’s social media post goes viral, labeling her photos racist. At first, she is furious, but as she learns more about how racist tropes have harmed Chinese people, she realizes why she triggered some hurt with her images.

Drug Content
References to drinking alcohol, smoking, and vague references to drugs. It’s legal for eighteen-year-olds to drink alcohol in Taipei, so some do, mostly off-scene. No drug use happens on-scene. A tabloid magazine reports drugs were used at a party, but it’s unclear whether that happened or is a rumor.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Andy and the Summer of Something by Jessica Foster

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

Andy and the Summer of Something (Andy and the Extroverts #2)
Jessica Foster
Winding Road Stories
Published July 16, 2024

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About Andy and the Summer of Something

It’s been a year since Andy Stevens attended leadership camp and changed her whole perspective. Now, she’s back at camp Follow the Leader as a counselor with the optimistic goal of helping campers just like she was: timid, withdrawn, and in need of a confidence injection. She’s even brought along her new
boyfriend Eric.

But when she arrives to find Lucas from last summer in a matching counselor vest, her plans go up in campfire smoke. Lucas helps her to lead her wild pack of extroverted campers, but he has an ulterior motive: to rekindle their romance and win Andy back.

Now she’s torn between the boy who stole her heart and the boy who is trying to fix it.

My Review

There is nothing like a fabulous summer camp book to really make me feel like I’m living the best parts of summer. I loved getting to go back to Camp Follow the Leader with Andy and see all the ways she’s grown and changed since the first book.

I like that the girls in Andy’s cabin aren’t all the quiet, meek girls she expected to have. Instead, she winds up with assertive girls who talk over one another and barely stop to listen to her. This means she has to figure out how to lead in a way they respect and understand while challenging them to listen to one another.

I kept forgetting that some of the girls in Andy’s cabin were only a year younger than she was. For some reason, I kept picturing middle school kids and being surprised that they were high schoolers. I don’t know why I kept making that mistake– possibly I just expected an age gap. Andy was a camper the year before this book takes place, so it does make sense that the kids would be only one year younger.

Andy has some fun moments in which she is hilariously not self-aware. In one scene, she mentally pats herself on the back for being a great listener and immediately tunes out what the camp director is saying. As she navigates her feelings for Eric and Lucas, she runs into more than one moment in which others seem to recognize her feelings before Andy herself.

In the first book, I found Andy’s anxiety and introversion incredibly relatable. This time around, her difficulty understanding her own wants and feelings and her awkward leadership faux pas had me remembering feeling those exact same emotions and making very similar choices and mistakes.

This was a fun summer book. I loved getting to revisit the camp and getting to see Andy figure out where her heart would lead her.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Most major characters are white. One is Asian American. One character is Black. One minor character has panic attacks.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. One scene leads up to characters having sex, but doesn’t show it.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Andy slaps a boy in the chest.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Camp Prodigy by Caroline Palmer

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Camp Prodigy
Caroline Palmer
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published June 11, 2024

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About Camp Prodigy

Perfect for fans of Victoria Jamieson and Raina Telgemeier, this heartwarming middle grade graphic novel follows two nonbinary kids who navigate anxiety and identity while having fun and forming friendships at their summer orchestra camp.

After attending an incredible concert, Tate Seong is inspired to become a professional violist. There’s just one they’re the worst musician at their school. Tate doesn’t even have enough confidence to assert themself with their friends or come out as nonbinary to their family, let alone attempt a solo anytime soon. Things start to look up when Tate attends a summer orchestra camp—Camp Prodigy—and runs into Eli, the remarkable violist who inspired Tate to play in the first place. But Eli has been hiding their skills ever since their time in the spotlight gave them a nervous breakdown.

Together, can they figure out how to turn Tate into a star and have Eli overcome their performance anxieties? Or will the pressure take them both down?

My Review

In the early pages, I found the transitions from one panel to the next a little jarring, but either I acclimated to the storytelling, or the transitions smoothed out by the end of the first chapter. I love the way that Palmer uses color, particularly panels with washed-out colors, to highlight when characters have a strong emotional reaction to something or someone. It made those moments stand out and gave them a huge emotional impact. It was like visually seeing the blood drain from someone’s face.

I liked both Tate and Eli as characters. They have such different personalities, and I enjoyed the way they interacted with one another, pushed each other in healthy ways, and helped give each other space to heal or grow.

The bulk of the story takes place during a month-long overnight summer camp for orchestra students. Tate and Eli both play the viola, so they compete for chair assignments in their section of the orchestra and attend rehearsals. The viola students are a pretty diverse group, both in appearance and personality. Some push for perfection. Others prioritize fun and building social connections in the summer camp environment. The book does a great job balancing and blending scenes showing musical instruction and summer camp activities and using them to show growth in both Tate and Eli.

This graphic novel is a quick, easy read bursting with bright colors and charming personalities. Readers who enjoy summer camp stories, books about musicians and music, or books about exploring identity and building friendships will not want to miss this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Both Tate and Eli are nonbinary. Eli is Black. Tate is Asian American. Characters of other races and ethnicities round out the cast.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A couple of people make discriminatory comments about someone’s nonbinary identity.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs posting about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino

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Give Me a Sign
Anna Sortino
G. P. Putnam & Sons
Published July 11, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Give Me a Sign

Jenny Han meets CODA in this big-hearted YA debut about first love and Deaf pride at a summer camp.

Lilah is stuck in the middle. At least, that’s what having a hearing loss seems like sometimes—when you don’t feel “deaf enough” to identify as Deaf or hearing enough to meet the world’s expectations. But this summer, Lilah is ready for a change.

When Lilah becomes a counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind, her plan is to brush up on her ASL. Once there, she also finds a community. There are cute British lifeguards who break hearts but not rules, a YouTuber who’s just a bit desperate for clout, the campers Lilah’s responsible for (and overwhelmed by)—and then there’s Isaac, the dreamy Deaf counselor who volunteers to help Lilah with her signing.

Romance was never on the agenda, and Lilah’s not positive Isaac likes her that way. But all signs seem to point to love. Unless she’s reading them wrong? One thing’s for Lilah wanted change, and things here . . . they’re certainly different than what she’s used to.

My Review

It’s funny the way book life works out sometimes. Just last week, I was talking about a book that the author wrote because she wanted to see a story featuring a whole cast of people with disabilities, and those are so exceedingly rare.

And here we are, today, talking about another book with a cast largely made up of people with disabilities. There are still not enough books like this. I just thought it was interesting that, without realizing it, I’ve scheduled reviews for two of them in the same month.

I love that this is a summer camp book. It really delivered the atmosphere, relationships, and outdoor adventures that you’d expect to find in a summer camp book.

I’m not Deaf, and I don’t have anyone in my life currently who is, so I don’t have any experience with Deaf culture. This book was very welcoming and helped me feel both immersed and oriented in what the characters were experiencing.

One of the camp counselors is not Deaf, but she positions herself as an interpreter on her social media channels, even though she is still learning ASL herself. Her behavior and beliefs trigger a lot of conversations among the campers and other counselors. At first I worried a little bit that she would kind of be positioned as a sort of one-dimensional character to stand in for all the ways hearing people get stuff wrong.

That’s not what happens, though. I mean, she does get some things wrong, for sure. There are several really cool conversations about how her behavior makes other people feel, and some conversations with the wanna-be interpreter herself that were really deep, too. The relationship with her also becomes an opportunity for Lilah to consider the unsatisfying parts of relationships with other hearing people in her life and what might change if she advocated for herself more effectively.

I loved Lilah. At the beginning, she’s scared and uncertain and so not sure what to do about the parts of her life that aren’t working. She remembers camp as a safe haven, and a place that helped her feel more confident, so she decides to try to get a summer job there.

At the job, she really blossoms. She helps some of the campers. Makes new friends. Gamely navigates new ways of doing things. She also falls for a boy. The whole romantic thread of the story is super sweet, too. It’s the best kind of summer romance.

There was one scene in GIVE ME A SIGN that really shocked me. I wasn’t expecting it, and Lilah’s panic and frustration were palpable. It’s a really good scene, but it was also heartbreaking.

Altogether, though, this might be one of my favorite summer books this year. I loved it, and absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a great summer camp read or a book featuring Deaf characters.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Most major characters are Deaf or blind. At least one minor character is Black. Another character is Dominican American. Two minor characters are gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A (young) boy jumps on Lilah while she’s swimming. She’s playing with another child in the water and isn’t prepared for him to do this. She’s worried about him accidentally hurting her, and he’s so rough it tears her bathing suit.

A man grabs a Deaf person from behind, causing a scuffle. The police get involved and scrape the person’s face on the ground trying to restrain them. They refuse to listen to someone who tells them that the restrained person is Deaf and cannot hear their shouted orders. The officer refuses to allow the restrained person to access their phone or writing materials which would allow them to communicate (and would have really helped defuse the situation, honestly).

Drug Content
The counselors go to a local bar where everyone but Lilah and one other person drinks alcohol. Several of them are under 21.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of GIVE ME A SIGN in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: Andy and the Extroverts by Jessica K. Foster

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Andy and the Extroverts
Jessica K. Foster
Winding Road Stories
Published May 16, 2023

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About Andy and the Extroverts

Seventeen-year-old bookish Andy has no friends. When her over-involved mother has the audacity to ship her off to summer leadership camp, she’s thrust into an introvert’s nightmare. Everyone is a Communicator with a capital C, icebreaker activities are scheduled into every waking moment, and horror of all horrors: there’s no coffee. Even the girls who take her under their wing are the kind of self-assured people Andy could never dream of becoming.

Then she meets Lucas‐‐hot, attentive, and everything Andy reads about in her books. Though the girls in her cottage try to warn her about him, she’s swept into the first romance of her life. But when she discovers her friends may be right, she’ll have to find her inner confidence to save her summer and become the leader she was always meant to be.

My Review

I’ve been in the mood for a good summer camp book lately (probably since I posted this list of ten great summer camp books). This book had all the things I was looking for: summer camp nerves, goofy group activities, unexpected but wonderful new friendships, and a summer romance!

As an introvert, I really appreciated a lot of Andy’s experiences. I especially appreciated her need for alone time and how often she felt like that was brushed off or negatively viewed. The scenes where people treat her as if her problem is simply shyness and that the solution is to push her “out of her comfort zone” also really resonated with me.

I think my favorite moments were the ones in which people quietly noticed or praised her leadership style, recognizing that it was different than the louder, rah-rah style of some of the other campers and counselors but often equally effective. I loved that. It made me feel like the author had some expertise or knowledge about ways that introverts lead versus extroverts. It made me think of QUIET by Susan Cain, which I heartily recommend to any introvert or person connected to one.

Anyway, I stayed up way too late finishing this book because I really wanted to know what would happen. I was a little disappointed in the ending simply because I hoped for a different outcome. I can really see how the ending fits and centers Andy’s character.

Would I read a follow-up to this book? Definitely. Because of the way it ends, I’m hoping there will be one. If you’re looking for a fun summer camp read, check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are white. One of Andy’s friends appears romantically interested in people of more than one gender. Andy has anxiety/panic attacks.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used pretty infrequently. In one scene, someone starts to say the F word but is cut off.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. In one scene, a girl removes her shirt and states that she’s interested in doing more than kissing. What exactly she does is left vague beyond that, though.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Andy experiences anxiety in a lot of situations at camp, including being forced into public speaking and during a swimming test. She has a panic attack while climbing a rock wall.

Boys prank a girl by pretending to be a bear while she’s out in the woods in the dark. A boy throws a girl into the lake while she’s asking him not to. He knows she’s not a strong swimmer. In both instances, the boys are confronted and apologize.

Drug Content
In one brief scene, Andy walks past some kids who are using a vape pen to smoke weed.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of ANDY AND THE EXTROVERTS in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston

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Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations #1)
B. B. Alston
Balzer + Bray
Published January 19, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Amari and the Night Brothers

Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems, than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside, if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

My Review

I remember hearing about this book before it came out, and my calendar was too full to fit in a release date review– which I have since regretted! Finally, I was able to read it, though.

From the very beginning, this book hooked me right in. I felt Amari’s pain at her brother’s disappearance. And her wonder at discovering the supernatural world. I loved the exploration of human rights and equality through the way that people saw her as a magician. As soon as people learned she was a magician, they made assumptions about her values and character. Being a magician wasn’t something she could control, but it also did not dictate her beliefs or her behavior.

There were a few moments in this book that reminded me so much of the movie MEN IN BLACK. When Amari did her training session where she had to identify which monsters/situations were a threat, that reminded me so much of Will Smith’s character’s similar experience in the movie, and I definitely grinned at that.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters, especially Amari’s roommate Elsie and Agents Fiona and Magnus. All in all, this was a really fun book to read, and a great start to the series.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Amari is Black and a born magician. In the supernatural world, being a magician, meaning someone has a high percentage of magic in their blood, is illegal.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
An Irish character says a British swear word a couple times.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Amari has the ability to create illusions. A friend has the ability to manipulate technology with magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Brief battle scenes. Some descriptions of injuries from monsters called hybrids, which are part animal and part human.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.