I Have a Bad Feeling About This

January 13, 2014
In this gleefully over-the-top, wickedly funny adventure, Strand (A Bad Day for Voodoo) pits several teens against the hazards of an extreme survival camp and a band of thugs. Sixteen-year-old Henry Lambert is sent to Strongwoods Survival Camp after his father decides he needs to be more of a man. What Henry discovers is a place with horrible food, an unspeakable outhouse, and a gun-toting nutjob of an instructor. When the end-of-camp paintball exercise is interrupted by violent criminals looking to collect on a debt, Henry and his fellow campers—as well as Monica, a resourceful girl from the music camp down the road—are thrust into a life-and-death struggle. The battle seesaws from frantic to slapstick (guns, arrows, fake grenades, and frying pans are all used), and Henry tries to find his inner action hero—as witnessed by the framing sequence involving the horribly exaggerated movie made after the fact. Strand balances action with laugh-out-loud humor, making this a thoroughly entertaining not-quite-coming-of-age tale. Ages 12–up. Agent: Stephanie Kip Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency.

February 1, 2014
Survival camp? How can you not have bad feelings about that? Sixteen-year-old nerd (or geek, but not dork) Henry Lambert has no desire to go to Strongwoods Survival Camp. His father thinks it might help Henry man up and free him of some of his odd phobias. Randy, Henry's best friend since kindergarten, is excited at the prospect of going thanks to the camp's promotional YouTube video, so Henry relents. When they arrive at the shabby camp in the middle of nowhere and meet the possibly insane counselor (and only staff member), Max, Henry's bad feelings multiply. Max tries to train his five campers with a combination of carrot and stick, but the boys are not athletes, let alone survivalists. When a trio of gangsters drops in on the camp Games to try to collect the debt owed by the owner, the boys suddenly have to put their skills to the test. Too bad they don't have any--at all. Strand's summer-camp farce is peopled with sarcastic losers who're chatty and wry. It's often funny, and the gags turn in unexpected directions and would do Saturday Night Live skits proud. However, the story's flow is hampered by an unnecessary and completely unfunny frame that takes place during the premier of the movie the boys make of their experience. The repeated intrusions bring the narrative to a screeching halt. Without that frame, this would have been a fine addition to the wacked-out summer-camp subgenre. (Fiction. 12-14)

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March 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Humor and hijinks are the name of the survival game for 16-year-old Henry Lambert. He is the consummate geeky gamer, and, according to his father, Henry's masculinity could use a boost. Thus, Henry finds himself shipped off to Strongwoods Survival Camp alongside his similarly nerdy best friend, Randy, and three other boys. The camp director, Max, is the typical drill instructor doling out challenges and punishments to whip the boys into fighting shape for the Strongwoods Survival Games. The antics are increased even more when a man named Mr. Grand and his thugs show up to collect on a debt and the boys find themselves having to put their survival skills (or lack thereof) to good use. A girl from the neighboring music camp adds a dash of romantic drama. Readers immediately learn that the events at Strongwoods are later made into an action film straight out of Hollywood; the story is told by alternating between Henry attending the movie's premiere and the book version of what actually happened. While the plot and characters are fairly predictable, it works. Purposefully bad wilderness survival tips at the end of each chapter add a bit of sarcastic comedy. The short chapters, writing style, and humor make this a good choice for reluctant readers. Give this one to fans of the Home Alone movies and readers who love caper stories.-Kimberly Castle-Alberts, Hudson Library & Historical Society, OH

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2014
Grades 6-9 It's not exactly the Hunger Games, but don't tell that to this group of geeks dragged to a wilderness survival camp. As if the prospect of two weeks without video games or cell phones isn't sobering enough to Henry and his five new buddies, the introductory dressing-down delivered by the drill sergeant camp leader, Max, is: The showers WILL be cold. The food WILL be disgusting. There is only one thing in the entire world that I truly fear, and that is the outhouse you will be using. The camp, however, does not unfold in the way that Henry imagines, as the odd bear and other predictable wilderness challenges are joined by a trio of trigger-happy mobsters as well as Monica, a tough, hot, dazzlingly competent visitor from the nearby girls' music camp. As in his A Bad Day for Voodoo (2012), Strand couples a rapid patter of well-tuned gags and teen banter with a plot marked by sudden violence and intervals of intense terror. It's humor of a knee-slapping, yet decidedly edgy kind.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)