What do you think?
Rate this book
This Island Isn't Big Enough for the Four of Us
Peter and Scott excitedly plan a camping trip to a deserted island, only to arrive and discover that two girls with zany senses of humor are already in residence.
151 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
9 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Gery Greer
9 books5 followersUS author, all of whose books have been written in collaboration with her husband, Bob Ruddick; her work is exclusively aimed at the younger end of the Young Adult market, and includes two series, the Max and Me sequence beginning with Max and Me and the Time Machine (1983) with Bob Ruddick, in which a piece of junk turns out to be a time machine that carries young Max (see Time Travel) into medieval England; and the Jason sequence beginning with Jason and the Aliens Down the Street (1991 chap) with Bob Ruddick, that undemandingly confronts young Jason with an Alien; no further Jason titles were released.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
March 27, 2018
Absolutely hilarious. My dad read this to us when I was in elementary school and I remember laughing uproariously. It holds up. The authors know camping, and they know things need to happen while you're camping or you just end up lying around eating all day.
Pete and Scott are on a camping trip on what they assume to be an empty island of forest and fur in the middle of a tourist lake (Scott's parents are staying at the lodge). Fortunately/unfortunately, the island is not deserted. While they're paddling up, Pete stands in the canoe to wax poetic on the adventure unfolding before them and, when the canoe tips, the boys see flashbulbs before they hit the water. (It's the '80s.) Jill and Sunny are camping with Jill's aunt and peeing themselves with laughter watching the boys take a swim. The boys vow revenge, and that's how the book goes. The funniest bit is when the boys plant a fake reward letter on a turtle "named Snowball" and induce the girls to search for its turtle friend Poopsie. Jill's aunt and a writer named Cornelius who summers on the island end up embroiled in the war of practical jokes and it ends with a grand game of Capture the Flag: "'Naturally we wouldn't want to do anything that isn't absolutely fair and square,' said Cornelius. 'But fortunately, Katherine did specifically say, 'Rules, schmules,' and I think we are entitled to use that as our guideline.'"
All in all, a great book that should go on the pile of books by authors who know what the outdoors are like, along with Halfway to the Sky and Tomorrow, When the War Began.
Pete and Scott are on a camping trip on what they assume to be an empty island of forest and fur in the middle of a tourist lake (Scott's parents are staying at the lodge). Fortunately/unfortunately, the island is not deserted. While they're paddling up, Pete stands in the canoe to wax poetic on the adventure unfolding before them and, when the canoe tips, the boys see flashbulbs before they hit the water. (It's the '80s.) Jill and Sunny are camping with Jill's aunt and peeing themselves with laughter watching the boys take a swim. The boys vow revenge, and that's how the book goes. The funniest bit is when the boys plant a fake reward letter on a turtle "named Snowball" and induce the girls to search for its turtle friend Poopsie. Jill's aunt and a writer named Cornelius who summers on the island end up embroiled in the war of practical jokes and it ends with a grand game of Capture the Flag: "'Naturally we wouldn't want to do anything that isn't absolutely fair and square,' said Cornelius. 'But fortunately, Katherine did specifically say, 'Rules, schmules,' and I think we are entitled to use that as our guideline.'"
All in all, a great book that should go on the pile of books by authors who know what the outdoors are like, along with Halfway to the Sky and Tomorrow, When the War Began.
September 4, 2016
This is a marvelous read aloud book for middle grades (3rd to 6th?) The book begins when Pete and Scott, age 12, are readying for High Adventure on an island in the middle of a lake. They're camping for a week by themselves. (Scott's parents will be on the lakeshore) The adventure really starts when they try to land their canoe on the island and both end up in the lake. Much to their chagrin, there are two girls(!!??) already on the island, about to fall down laughing at the boys' antics.
"This means war," Pete says to Scott, and it is. There is much laugh out loud hilarity in the book, and a wise teacher will read it herself and get her own giggles out before attempting to read it to kids. Trust me on this. This book will probably have the toughest of kids rolling out of their desks giggling.
"This means war," Pete says to Scott, and it is. There is much laugh out loud hilarity in the book, and a wise teacher will read it herself and get her own giggles out before attempting to read it to kids. Trust me on this. This book will probably have the toughest of kids rolling out of their desks giggling.
April 19, 2019
I loved this book just as much now as I did the first time I read it in elementary school. I often found myself grinning and laughing out loud at the crazy shenanigans Pete and Scott pull off throughout the book, and also at the trouble they get themselves into. This is a great book for all young readers, boys and girls alike, and I would highly recommend it!
August 5, 2011
While waiting for my daughter at the library one day, I was holding the stack of books she planned to check out. I grew bored and selected one for reading ... this book by chance. I couldn't stop laughing out loud (you get in trouble in libraries for this!). I finally had to close the book because I couldn't keep quiet! I think it's hilarious --- all the angst of growing up and learning to pay attention (and avoid unwanted attention) from the opposite sex. If you can read this book without laughing out loud, you have no sense of humor!
July 7, 2012
One of my favorites that I've had on my book shelf ever since I was younger, and now I re-read it again this summer and still think it's a great, cute, summer story for middle schoolers. Nothing terribly amazing or that will stick with you, but it's just a quick, fun read. Maybe not super well-written, but that's ok sometimes and kids won't notice. I'm passing this on to the kid I babysit and think she'll enjoy it like I first did at her age. It feels great to re-live a childhood favorite and think like a kid again.
November 25, 2010
This was my favorite book as an elementary student. Two girls versus two boys fighting over an island that they are camping on. Tricks, tree houses, minimal adult supervision and a smidge of romance. It had everything!
Why I picked it up: It was on sell at our school library's book sale for only $.25! What a bargain.
Why I picked it up: It was on sell at our school library's book sale for only $.25! What a bargain.
August 15, 2012
This is a re-read. At 12, I thought this book was fascinating and hilarious. At 29, I think it's silly and dated.
*just read it again after coming across it while cleaning off my bookshelf, August of 2012. Silly, yes, dated, yes, but still pretty cute. Maybe it deserves 3 stars.
*just read it again after coming across it while cleaning off my bookshelf, August of 2012. Silly, yes, dated, yes, but still pretty cute. Maybe it deserves 3 stars.
June 21, 2008
It is soooooo adventurous!
December 27, 2009
I read this in the fourth grade and thought it was the funniest thing on the planet. I recently reread it and it wasn't as funny. Still cute, no great work of literature.
June 2, 2012
I absolutely adored this book when I was a kid. Ever since I've been in love with the idea of having a huge tree house in the woods on a small island in the middle of a lake somewhere.
December 23, 2014
This was an excellent quick read. Great for anybody that enjoys the outdoors, especially anyone who has been to youth camp.
December 8, 2024
This was my absolute favorite book in my childhood — I checked it out from the library every year. And as an adult I still reread it every couple years for nostalgia and continue to love it just as much. (Although as an adult I do find it hard to believe that two sets of parents let their 11/12 year old boys canoe their way to a little local island and camp there in the wilderness alone. Before cell phones were a thing. But whatever!)
This book has everything I always loved as a kid (and now) — camping, outdoor adventures, that fun sense of freedom and exploration that was so exciting as a kid. Reading it takes me back to that carefree childhood innocence and zest for independence and adventures with friends.
I love the overall feeling of realness with this story. The boys’ dismay at finding girls staying on “their” “super secret deserted” island. The girls constantly out to pester or embarrass them. The fun addition of the hippy dude and the island competition. This story just holds up every time I read it. Just a fun little feel-good escape I need sometimes and never disappoints.
I would adore a book that came back to these characters in their high school years for a good double “rivals to lovers” light rom com.
This book has everything I always loved as a kid (and now) — camping, outdoor adventures, that fun sense of freedom and exploration that was so exciting as a kid. Reading it takes me back to that carefree childhood innocence and zest for independence and adventures with friends.
I love the overall feeling of realness with this story. The boys’ dismay at finding girls staying on “their” “super secret deserted” island. The girls constantly out to pester or embarrass them. The fun addition of the hippy dude and the island competition. This story just holds up every time I read it. Just a fun little feel-good escape I need sometimes and never disappoints.
I would adore a book that came back to these characters in their high school years for a good double “rivals to lovers” light rom com.
April 19, 2020
The last time I read this book was when I was in fifth grade, and still find it fun and charming. I remember reading this book because It inspired my love of camping and canoeing. As well as my dream of living is a treehouse with a library.
June 29, 2019
One of my favorite books of all time!
June 5, 2020
This is what I wanted my life to be like as a child.
January 27, 2021
Very fun read, I laughed so many times
July 6, 2022
I remember loving this book as as kid, and it was a delightful summer read aloud with my children. So many funny scenes! We were all laughing out loud!
February 23, 2023
Love this !×1000
January 27, 2024
A fun book from my childhood that I got to share with my kids! The treehouse is the best part. :)
January 7, 2019
This book was ridiculously funny! It's about the funniest book I've read so far! Parts of it actually made me laugh out loud,and I don't normally do that! I really recommend this book to you if you aren't sure if you want to read it or not. Happy reading!
September 10, 2012
This Island Isn’t Big Enough For the Four of Us
Scott & his best friend Pete want to have a camping adventure of their own without their parents. Turtle Island, a fairly small uninhabited island in the middle of a lake seems like a perfect place. After much discuss, their parents agree.
The perfect vacation begins to go awry from the start. First, the tent Scott manages to borrow looks like a Gingerbread Cottage. Second is that their catastrophic arrival to the island is witness & photographed by Sunny & Jill, two girls their own age. Third, the girls keep managing to be around with camera in hand whenever the boys mess up.
It is boys versus girls as the pranks get ever more complicated. Add Jill’s Aunt Katherine, a wildlife photographer and an author, Cornelius, who owns a spectacular tree house, and the mayhem on this formerly deserted island quickly spirals out of control.
I remember as a child thinking that this book was hysterical. Literally laugh out loud funny – my father kept coming to see what was the matter with me the first time I read it! Since ordering books wasn’t as easy as it is today, I had to content myself with repeated borrowings from the library.
It was originally published in 1987, a time when nobody, not even grown-ups had cell phones and nobody knew what ‘internet’ meant. It would be decades before anyone even though of giving a Smart Phone to a child. Because of these elements, I am curious if a modern child would like this story. As an adult I did enjoy re-reading it, but that was as much nostalgia as pleasure from an amusing story.
Bottom-line: I love it, but I don’t know if anyone else would. If you like boys vs. girls stories or tales of camping, give it a go.
Scott & his best friend Pete want to have a camping adventure of their own without their parents. Turtle Island, a fairly small uninhabited island in the middle of a lake seems like a perfect place. After much discuss, their parents agree.
The perfect vacation begins to go awry from the start. First, the tent Scott manages to borrow looks like a Gingerbread Cottage. Second is that their catastrophic arrival to the island is witness & photographed by Sunny & Jill, two girls their own age. Third, the girls keep managing to be around with camera in hand whenever the boys mess up.
It is boys versus girls as the pranks get ever more complicated. Add Jill’s Aunt Katherine, a wildlife photographer and an author, Cornelius, who owns a spectacular tree house, and the mayhem on this formerly deserted island quickly spirals out of control.
I remember as a child thinking that this book was hysterical. Literally laugh out loud funny – my father kept coming to see what was the matter with me the first time I read it! Since ordering books wasn’t as easy as it is today, I had to content myself with repeated borrowings from the library.
It was originally published in 1987, a time when nobody, not even grown-ups had cell phones and nobody knew what ‘internet’ meant. It would be decades before anyone even though of giving a Smart Phone to a child. Because of these elements, I am curious if a modern child would like this story. As an adult I did enjoy re-reading it, but that was as much nostalgia as pleasure from an amusing story.
Bottom-line: I love it, but I don’t know if anyone else would. If you like boys vs. girls stories or tales of camping, give it a go.
August 15, 2012
The author emphasized the themes of independence and friendship in this book. He did this to tell reader that most situations can be survived if you have a friend by your side and that it is important to be a self sustaining individual.wheb the girls built a better campsite than the boys did he expressed that he doesn't believe that fended plays a role in someone's aptitude towards a task. I felt very uncomfortable that the parents of these four children allowed them to live on their own for few weeks on a random island. It shows that the author is from a very different time than the present. It made me understand that it is important to keep an open mind when reading a book. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a few laughs. The humor is hidden very well and it makes you appreciate your friends a little more.
February 15, 2010
Well, I just thought this book was strange. I mean, I know it was set in the 80's, but why would the parents just agree to let their sons camp on a deserted island? Seriously. I thought it would be about these kids who got stranded on a desert island and had wacky adventures. I would rate that 4 stars. Also, I couldn't get into it for some reason, and once I finished it, I said "Was that really it??" The ending was kind of fairytale-ish and weird. But I LOVED the idea of having a Gingerbread Tent, minus the weird witch. :-)
November 29, 2009
This book is good for anyone who enjoys funny, easy to read books. I thought it was good, but not as good as other books i have read. I sure hope someone that reads this thinks it was as funny as i thought it was! :)
March 13, 2011
Once again a flash back to my childhood reading. An amusing tale of adventure and that in-between faze of "boys or girls are gross and have cooties" to "hay i like boys or girls". Very funny and accurate to the ages portrayed.
June 29, 2008
i was laughing so hard!!!
August 13, 2012
Hands down like my favorite book club book of all time. Unfortunately i didn't hold up well with time. 5 stars from my childhood and 2-3 stars now.
September 4, 2010
I read this book when I was in 4th grade and found it laugh-out-loud funny. I've read it many times since and it still makes me smile. Great boy vs. girl humor plus outdoor adventures.
January 1, 2012
This was one of my favorite books as an elementary student. I remember laughing so much! I will definitely have my boys read it when they are older.
January 11, 2012
I've been rereading some of my favorite books from when I was a kid, and I still like this book. It's a quick read, funny, light.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews