Quick fun read, esp. for MG make reluctant readers but really for anyone willing to let their inner child come play & learn.

I love the sketches that look like they may have been actually done by the child narrator (a la' Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and the photos that make this seem like a real memoir. I assume it's a novel, but it may actually be expanded from a real school camp event.

For a moment at the beginning, as Mark is introducing his friends, I wondered if someone was going to turn out to be autistic. But the characters with the blatantly 'heavy' issues were actually certain of the adults. Mostly the book reads like a simple fun adventure.

Otoh, if the child reader owns the book, and reads it both when s/he is 8 and again at age 11, nuances & depths will become evident. Different themes will become more interesting, and the reader's reactions to, say, the wisdom of some of the choices the kids make, may change.

Bonus, esp for non-Aussie readers, is the ubiety. It's very Australian, and though the casual reader will be amused by the wombats and Oz slang, a careful reader will get even more references to make it special - for example, knowing who John Marsden is makes one character have more depth.

So, the bit at the beginning that might resonate with autistic readers was cute:

In math we were doing prime numbers, and I was thinking if Jonah was a number, he'd be a prime number for sure.... Now, Wormz, he'd be a number everything could be divided into. He'd be an easygoing number 12. Me, I take the simple way, I'm 10. Mitch is definitely number 1."

I think this paragraph clearly reinforces what we already know about the boys. Mitch thinks he's the top dog, apex & primary. Wormz is friends with everybody. Jonah is the new kid - not aloof, not weird, but not into jabbering idly or spilling his guts to try to fit in. And the narrator is more defined by his role than his rather colorless personality." ( )

Take a group of guys known affectionately as the Coconuts, including Mark, who got an old camera for his birthday. Take Jonah, who suddenly arrived in Mark’s class, and didn’t get along with Mr Cromwell (who “became a teacher so he could be bossy and mean”). Take Bulldozer the wombat, who “when he’s older he’s going back to the bush.” Now, mix these ingredients together with the rest of class 5/6C at Gumbinya Pioneer Camp, and read all about it!

This is basically the very funny yet somehow completely realistic account of a school camp. Experienced school campers will recognise many familiar elements: numbering off; the accidental mud fight; the parent helpers with unpronounceable names; and the camp helpers from overseas in funny clothes. Being a ‘pioneering’ camp, the students also experience living without luxuries for a week. Plumbing is questionable (so is cutlery), and daytime activities tend to incorporate having to ‘think for themselves’.

In addition, there are the numerous teachers supervising the camp, each with their different personalities, carefully detailed by the narrator Mark in the first few chapters. Most significant to this story is Mr Brian Cromwell – “Crom the Bomb” – a hideous caricature of a teacher who embodies every loathsome characteristic a single educational professional could possibly have. That’s Mark’s impression of him on the cover of the book. Even the other teachers find him difficult to get along with.

Mark succeeds in convincing his mother that he should be able to take his camera to camp. She even provides him, at his request, with a roll of black-and-white film, because she decides she wants to see some photos of his experiences. “Thirty-six chances!” In fact only about half that number is included in the book, but they cover such diverse subject matter as the wildlife; fellow students; stuff they found in the bush; and Meatloaf, the giant… well, maybe you’d better read the story for yourself.

Besides the photos, which Mark is saving for special occasions, the book is also widely ornamented with drawings and doodles of the other things he’s describing. Some of my favourites include his impression of “everything absolutely crawling with ants in his sticky lolly dribble”, and the additions to each chapter number.

Not everything about the book is light-hearted: Jonah has a mysterious past, and some resolution is needed in his ongoing battle with The Bomb. On the whole, though, I would recommend this book as an easy read with short chapters for anybody in the mood either for a laugh or to reminiscence about camp. Similarly, this story is a great favourite to read aloud to classes preparing for camps.