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Summary
Summary
The brother-sister pairs who arrive for the summer at Camp Happy Harmony are almost too busy fighting with each other to notice how strange the camp really is. Not only are campers forced to wear bizarre uniforms, eat gross food, and do chores all day, but the members of the family that runs the camp fight constantly--with each other. Are the campers in danger Or--in spite of sibling wars--do they need to stock together to solve the mystery humming under the surface of Camp Happy Harmony
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Told entirely through letters, postcards, Post-its, illustrations, and the like, this is the story of three brother/sister pairs who discover that Camp Harmony is not at all what it seems. Silliness and mystery combine, and readers will have to turn detective to figure it all out. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A bit less satisfying than the Klises' Regarding the Fountain, this summer camp mystery employs the same roundabout storytelling style, unfolding its plot through an avalanche of letters, memos, menus, ledgers and legal documents. The premise is clever: Camp Happy Harmony, run by the six Harmony Family Singers, accepts siblings who constantly fight and turns them into happy brother-sister pairs. With an abundance of characters to keep straight, the author cooks up no-holds-barred caricatures and spoofs. Thus campers Barbie Q. and Brisket Roast, two bickering Texans who "fight like starving dogs over a T-bone," are joined by the snooty Brits Mimi and Ivan Gems and the very average Charlotte and Charlie Lee. It soon becomes apparent that the Harmony Singers are anything but a happy family, and the children set out to discover their not-so-nice secrets. The energetic string of documents that tell the story appear here on overactive spreads, seemingly designed to cater to the MTV generation's appetite for constant visual stimulation. On the whole this busy send-up offers easy entertainment: the humor is obvious but kid-friendly, the mystery simple yet fun to solve. Ages 8-12. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
When a summer camp--designed to promote harmonious brother-sister relationships--turns out to be a sham, six campers join forces and expose their crooked counselors. Told through a series of letters, postcards, memos, and illustrations, the quirky mystery simultaneously lampoons the camping experience, sibling conflicts, and over-serious correspondence-based texts à la [cf2]Griffin and Sabine[cf1]. From HORN BOOK Fall 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Anyone who has been to summer camp will delight in this wild spoof of camp life told entirely in letters, memos, and whimsical illustrations, in a format similar to the Klises' Regarding the Fountain (1998). Three sets of brothers and sisters who hate each other find themselves trapped in Camp Happy Harmony, which promises to teach battling siblings love and respect. But the Harmony family, a crowd of has-been singers, turn out to be thieving con-artists plotting to murder each other. Led by the egotistical Darlene Harmony, the family uses the campers for drudge work, assigning them to paint buildings and build fences, feeding them drugged dinners and very little else. Darlene is trying to kill off the handyman, while two of the Harmonys (one of whom isn't even a real Harmony brother) are trying to poison the other four. The campers, also oddballs, rise to the occasion by learning to cook, spying on the Harmonys, cracking the mystery, and exposing the Harmonys' crimes to the world. Along the way they also come to love one another. The illustrations are as important as the writing, allowing readers to become detectives and discover clues in the letters and pictures. Every character and every plot development is thoroughly silly, and every single one contributes to the charm of this novel. A real treat, ideal for having on hand for camp care packages. (Fiction. 8-12)
Booklist Review
Gr. 5^-8. Three sets of quarreling siblings are sent, against their will, to Camp Happy Harmony, a rustic summer camp in Missouri run by the Harmony Family Singers, a once-popular singing group. The aging performers claim to be able to transform sibling rivalry to affection, using their own principles of family togetherness. But something is rotten in Camp Happy Harmony, and the intelligent, capable, and quirky campers solve the mystery, while slowly coming to actually appreciate their own siblings. The format sets this delightfully wacky story apart: it's told entirely through letters, memos, journal entries, telegrams, receipts, lists, and charming drawings. Although rampant stereotypes abound (prim and proper British sibs Mimi and Ivan Gems, Texas-twangy Barbie Q. and Brisket Roast, and much more), the humor is very gentle and tongue-in-cheek. At first, the three sets of sibs and six Harmony family members might seem too much to juggle, but it is surprisingly easy to keep the characters straight, thanks to a wide variety of fonts and clear layouts. All in all, an entirely satisfying camp adventure that even those who have never been to camp will relish. --Debbie Carton
