Dilly's Summer Camp Diary

by Cynthia Copeland Lewis

The diary of a frog-loving girl's first summer camp experience, from the rocky beginnings to the final, fun-filled days

Genres: Childrens

32 pages, Library Binding

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mehsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though it is so not the season for camp stories, I still wanted to read this one as it sounded really cute.

And it was cute, though before I start with the positives I want to get the negatives out of the way.

Dilly was just so annoying most of the book. Boohooo x and y happens, boohooo z happens. The only thing I didn't mind her being grumpy about was Meredith. While I don't mind Meredith finding a new friend, I found it quite mean that she just ditched Dilly (who did her best for her), didn't include in her in games or other stuff (not counting the skit thingie). But other than that? Dilly complained about everything. Not getting letters/packages, the food (because oh no you can't eat cheese and everything is magically cheese, sure girl sure, come back when you have a real allergy and we will talk), the camp, the horses, the swimming, and many more things. The only thing she acted happy was when she finally got packages, when the food wasn't cheese, and when she suddenly had a rise in popularity. *rolls eyes*
Oh and I hated how she berated and belittled everyone in her journal. Someone would tell her x, and she would write stuff down that she didn't believe them because they looked/acted in a certain way. *rolls eyes some more*

While I will talk about the creativity of the book in the good section I will also talk about the fact that due to this it was hard to read at times (because it was all handwritten), and I got a bit of pain in my neck from having to flip my head every time the text was flipped (I am reading this one my ereader/tablet). Though I think I would have gotten annoyed either way if I had this book normally. *reads a part, has to flip book to read other parts*

Now for the good parts.

The camp sounded like such a delight. Swimming, canoeing, hiking, frogs, horses, and so much more, I wouldn't mind spending some days there. Getting letters and packages. Nights around a campfire.

The way the book was formatted. It was done like a journal, so there are photographs (I guess the book is slightly based on real events? Or did the author just grab random pictures from the internet?), there are illustrations, everything is colourful, handwritten, fun. Some of the letters Dilly gets are also found in the journal. Just like you can see some camp information as well. It is really creatively done. This was quite a surprise. I hadn't expected the book to look like this. I had thought it would just be a picture book (so big pictures with a bit of text).

The illustrations were pretty great, I loved their style, just like what a kid would draw. :)

Dilly's family sounded really sweet, and I loved how they send her so many letters (though it took a while before they came in, good job mom), and how the send her packages, and other fun things to make sure she wouldn't be too homesick.

All in all a pretty decent and fun book, just a shame about the MC and the readability of the text.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dilly writes in a notebook about her experience at summer camp.
A great sample text for teaching kids how to write in journals.
Text to text: Amelia's Notebook

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book when I was a kid! Especially because it had frogs and those were my favorite

[katie]

First read this in 3rd grade because my teacher knew I loved frogs :) So cute!