(I wish this review was better timed, as this book takes place in the summer and was in fact published in May, but I love camp books year-round and I hope some of you do too.)

Ah, camp books. How I love you!

Sam’s best friend Mal is revolting head over disgusting heels in love for the first time. Loathe to spend her summer playing third wheel to Malomark (her name for them – ha!), she applies to be a CIT (that’s counselor-in-training) at Whispering Pines Camp. She promises Mel that she’ll make her tons of their trademark video messages to one another, and soon enough she’s off for her first summer at camp ever.

When she arrives at Whispering Pines she learns a few important things: she’s the only CIT who’s never been a Whispering Pines camper OR a camper at all; there’s a really hot fellow CIT named Hunter, who begins flirting with her almost immediately; her mother and the camp director seem uncomfortably (to Sam) attracted to one another; and for some reason, the camp director’s queen bee CIT daughter, Ashley, seems to develop an instant dislike for her. That could have something to do with the fact that Sam receives the most coveted CIT post: she’ll be spending her summer working with Ashley’s sister, Alexis.

If nothing else, it will certainly make for an interesting summer.

Sam makes fast friends with three fellow CITs who are also on Ashley’s bad side, and those friendships help her forget – at least for brief periods of time – that she’s getting no video messages from Mal. That hottie Hunter seems to be more than a bit of a player. That Ashley seems determined to ruin Sam’s summer and reputation at any cost.

I love Sam. She’s so imperfect. What gives Ashley’s vendetta against her an extra dramatic edge is that Sam is more than a bit of a mess.  She’s too much of a people pleaser. She can be incredibly wishy-washy. She’s completely blind to the player-ness of Hunter (at least for awhile). And, because she’s a camp virgin, she has a whole lot to learn.

I think everyone’s experienced “in the trenches” friendships. Friendships that develop fast and hard because you’re thrown together in some way – in the cast of a play, for example, or on the same dorm floor at college. I think it’s hard to portray those friendships realistically, because sometimes, even in real life, they feel a little unrealistic. They happen so quickly. Sometimes you don’t have that much in common, or maybe you wouldn’t be friends if you met anywhere else. It’s because of the circumstances that you bond, and after that bond forms, it doesn’t much matter how alike you are. You’ve become alike.

Calonita does an excellent job of making Sam’s camp friendships realistic.  Even though I never went to camp, I felt a familiar pang while reading about their conversations and their pranks and their arguments because that’s the kind of relationships I had with my high school theatre friends. I’m guessing some of my pang was that I was dying to go to camp when I was younger, despite the fact that I hate campING, but no one really did that where I grew up.  I think I was mostly dying to jump into a camp book rather than attend actual camp. But part of me will always wonder what would have been if I had been able to go to sleepaway camp, and that part of me will continue to seek out books that take place there. This? Is a good one.

Buy this book from an independent bookstore!

The other main character, Max, is an actor, and he’s intending to use his acting skills to snag a girl at camp. Just his luck – he is smitten with Olivia on the very first day, but she has sworn off all men. Will writing her musical get the anger out of her system, thus opening the door for Max to walk through – or close it forever?

I’m having a hard time with this one.

First of all, despite it’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL-esque cover, this isn’t for tweens. I mean, the title probably gives that away, but I feel the need to say it anyway.

Second of all – well, I don’t know who it’s for, really. Adults is my best guess, but it’s published as YA, and I just don’t know what to do with it.

It’s funny. It’s definitely funny. At times it is actually laugh out loud funny, which I rarely say about a book. Usually when I find a book funny I’m chuckling to myself, but with CC I did actually laugh out loud several times.

But this book doesn’t just contain what I would call “content.” It’s not just “older.” It is raunchy. Dirty. Seriously so. Button-pushing, sending that envelope right over the edge dirty. Then there’s the rampant pot smoking (one character seems to do nothing but smoke pot), and the binge drinking. Where is this book going to go? Not in the vast majority of school libraries, that’s for sure, and I’m betting a lot of public librarians gave it a pass, too. I didn’t order it for Pudd’nHead’s YA section, and I know Children’s Book World didn’t either, because 95% of the time we are selling books to kids with their parents present, and I don’t know any parents who are going to buy this book. (And honestly, I wouldn’t sell it to a kid alone, because I’ll bet you anything we’d get quite an earful from that parent later.)

I don’t know what to DO with books like this. Jake Wizner’s a heck of a writer, and man, he is FUNNY.  I, a 37 year old theatre geek, loved it. I’m planning on passing it on to some of my (adult) friends, who I’m sure will find it hilarious. But I absolutely cannot sell this book to kids, and I’m wondering why Random House thought I could. I’m sure kids are finding it, at big box stores or at some libraries, and I’m sure some independents bought it, but…are people out there handselling this to kids? (Please, comment and tell me if you are, and how, and to who – I really want to know.)  But is this book really going to sell well? Random House certainly must have thought so, or they wouldn’t have published it, let alone published it in hardcover – but boy, would I like to talk to someone about the thought process behind letting a book this raunchy go out as YA.

Don’t misunderstand me. There’s a lot of good stuff here. The character relationships are good, and the emotional journeys ring true. And as I said above, Wizner can really, really write, and he’s funny, and funny is not easy. Also, the content doesn’t bother me. I’m 37. I’ve read far worse than this, and heard far worse. (And incidentally would like to have a long sit-down with the online reviewers who are complaining about homosexual characters in this book, because it’s 2009, so can we please stop with the bigotry already?) The fact that this book contains oral sex (and discussion of same), full-on sex, drug use, drinking, lewd conversation with every sexual term imaginable and an absolute freight train of profanity does not bother me, the reader. As a reader, I give this a very high rating.

But as a bookseller? A children’s bookseller? How do I review a book so over the top I actually can’t sell it?

(I am actually kind of dying for sales info on this one – who’s buying, who’s selling, where it’s going, and is it a success in the intended market.)

I’m back from “vacation”; let’s see if we can get this going again.

(I read this in galley, but it came out at the end of May.)

Every once in awhile a book comes along that makes me realize that to enjoy some things, you really have to be 12 years old. This book is one of those things. (Note: this is not a bad thing; I shall explain.)

14 year old Toby – bored, lonely, and at sea just two weeks into the summer – applies at and is hired by the newest branch of pizza chain Killer Pizza. Since he dreams of becoming a world-famous chef (despite no experience besides eating and watching the Food Network), this suits him perfectly.

However, it’s only a (short) matter of time before he learns that Killer Pizza is really a front for a secret monster-hunting organization, and that he’s been hired not for his pizza-making enthusiasm, but for some unnamed quality that the KP saw within him.

At first, Toby finds the whole thing thrilling – high-tech gadgets, clandestine training, and spending time with his beautiful classmate Annabel – but a terrifying encounter in the woods one night brings the whole thing a little too close to home for him. He wants out – but will he be allowed to leave, knowing what he now knows? Does he really have an important part to play in the KP organization? What happens to his hometown if the monsters win?

So, what I referred to at the beginning – it is pretty impossible for me, a 37 year old, to believe that a monster-hunting organization would think that hiring normal 14 year olds to battle the forces of evil was a good idea. It took some serious suspension of my disbelief to get around that. However, once I got over myself (and tried to pretend I was 12) I dug this book a lot. It’s a little funny, more than a little scary, and chock a block full of monster-hunting action. Toby’s a goofball, but a likeable goofball. There aren’t a lot of scary books out there for middle-grade readers, and I get a lot of kids looking for a fright, so I’m glad to add KILLER PIZZA to the shelf.

(Reading it made me really hungry, so be forewarned.)

This book is going to appeal to kids who like THE WESTING GAME, THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY, THE NAME OF THIS BOOK IS SECRET, SHAKESPEARE’S SECRET, THE VIEW FROM SATURDAY…in other words, this book has some pretty wide-ranging appeal.

The basic plot is this: the owner of a local potato-chip company sets up a puzzle hunt for area school kids, and Winston’s school gets an invite. His principal asks him to head up the school’s team, and he picks his two best friends to be the other participants (a move unappreciated by the math teacher who ultimately becomes the chaperone, as he’d hoped the participants would all be Mathletes). Winston and his team head off to the factory to meet the other teams and set out on the puzzling quest that will end with one school winning fifty thousand dollars. Along the way they’ll have to deal with cheaters, math experts, bad tempers, and a teacher who doesn’t seem to believe that they can win.

The puzzles are sprinkled throughout the book for the reader to solve (answers are in the back). I’m terrible at math and terrible at most puzzles, so I skipped 95% of them. They’re an enhancement to the reading experience, but not central to the plot – I didn’t miss anything by skipping them, as far as I can tell. But for a math or puzzle obsessed kid, the puzzles will only make reading the book that much more awesome.

Winston and his pals are smart and funny, but not dwelling-in-the-basement-geeky in that stereotypical way a lot of smart kids can be portrayed in. In fact, this book does a remarkably good job of not painting any of the math…enthusiasts? as mouthguard-wearing pocket-protector-having nerds. This book actually makes math and puzzles seem…fun. (Just writing that made me feel a little faint – math hasn’t been my friend since 7th grade Algebra I.) I would have loved this book in middle school. I think it’ll be a big hit in its target age range, whether a kid likes math and puzzles or not.

James is funny, a total smartass, and clearly super smart. A lot of the papers he writes for school actually made me laugh out loud, and that doesn’t happen very often. I like Nelson’s writing, and I liked these characters. I enjoy the journal format, and think it was a good choice for this book.

Here’s my problem: I don’t know who this book is for.

It seems to be aimed at boys – I think. The galley cover was a bit of a crossover, so I could imagine handing it to the right girl – but I don’t know what’s going on with that cover I posted up there at the top. If that’s the cover that’s going to print…well, that’s awful. Because this book is not actually about destroying cars. This book is about James, and his personal thoughts and feelings (especially about Sadie), and his relationships and his life. So right off the bat, the cover doesn’t give you a good picture of what’s inside.

Added later: I blew the cover up so I could get a good look at it. Now I see the top is two people kissing. Even worse if you’re trying to sell this book to boys. Seriously, you took the galley cover and you made it even worse. No boy is going to be seen reading this book.

Added even later: Okay, I see on Blake Nelson’s website that the cover is going to be the galley cover. It’s better – it’s got a graphic of a road on it, and on the yellow line is a heart with a car inside and then a line through the car – but to me it appeals neither to boys or to girls. It’s sort of a compromise cover, and I don’t know how well those work. 

Second problem: on the back (of the galley, at least) the word “sexy” appears as a descriptor of the book. Kiss. Of. Death. Bye-bye, boys. Boys don’t read books with the word “sexy” on the back. Not THIS kind of book, anyway – not a book aimed at their age group. Plus, this book? Not really “sexy.” There’s sex in it, and James talks about sex, but that’s not the same thing.

This is a sort of Nick Hornby-esque book, and Nick Hornby’s YA novel didn’t really sell to teens. If Nick Hornby can’t do it, I don’t know how anyone else can do it. As I said, I can see some girls going for this, but is there really a huge group of teenage boys out there reading journal-style novels from the point of view of other teenage boys? Other teenage boys obsessing about girls and sex and school? Because in five years of working at a kids-only bookstore, I never met a single teenage boy who wanted to read this kind of book.

And are girls going to read it? I don’t know. It really is ALL about James, and not really in a “discover the secret thoughts of boys and figure out what they’re all about” kind of way. Some girls, yes. Some girls, no.

I really liked it, I just don’t know who I’m supposed to sell it to.

Jessica Day George’s website says that the upcoming DRAGON SPEAR is the last of the books she will write about Creel and her dragon friends, and now I am VERY VERY MAD at Jessica Day George. Stop writing if the books seem in danger of starting to suck, yes, but THAT IS NOT THE CASE HERE.

Creel’s story begins in DRAGON SLIPPERS, with her aunt deciding that she can’t/doesn’t want to support her anymore, so she takes Creel and leaves her outside of a dragon’s cave. Her aunt hopes that a noble lad from the village will come in and rescue her niece and marry her AND distribute the treasure around, thus making them all rich. Unfortunately for her aunt, Creel bargains with the dragon (who, in truth, couldn’t be less interested in eating her) and ends up setting off for the Big City to become a dressmaker, an odd pair of shoes in her hands, and a giant adventure (with still more dragons!) in front of her. The story continues in DRAGON FLIGHT, the second book. I don’t want to say too much about the two plots because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I need to tell you: these books are awesome. They’re funny and really well-plotted and Creel is spunky and smart and the kind of character you wish you could know. The dragons are almost better than she is; instead of collecting treasure they all collect something different. Seriously, one dragon collects DOGS. One collects stained glass windows. It’s so ridiculously great. And they all have wildly different personalities, each one so distinct and so well-drawn.

So because I don’t want to spoil anything for you, I really can’t tell you anything about DRAGON SPEAR either, except for this: it is too good to be a series ender. I mean, sure, if Jessica Day George (I just like to type her whole name) insists on ending it here, it has a satisfying closure to it. Unless you define “satisfying” as “clearly paving the way for thirteen or fourteen more books about Creel,” which I do.

I love this series NOW. I can only imagine being lucky enough to have it when I was ten or eleven or twelve (or, frankly, eight or nine, because I was a very advanced reader).  When I read that the series was ending I wanted to (as my toddler daughter would say) “cwy and scweam.” I am very, very, very sad about this and very, very, very mad at Jessica Day George.

And DRAGON SPEAR is a very, very, very good book; a very, very, very good end to a very, very, very good series and I am very, very, very insistent that if you haven’t read it you go out and start doing so immediately.

Yes, I meant it. Off with you!

Preorder DRAGON SPEAR from Powell’s or find your local independent bookstore.