Camp Club Girls & the Mystery at Discovery Lake

Camp Club Girls #1

by Renae Brumbaugh

When six girls from different parts of the country end up as roommates at camp, they also join forces to find out what’s really going on beyond the crafts and Bible quizzing. Where are the strange noises coming from? And what’s the “DanGer” warning all about? “Camp Discovery” indeed! The mysteries seem as thick as the woods surrounding the cabins!

Genres: Mystery, Christian, Middle Grade, Christian Fiction, Fiction, Childrens

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Renae Brumbaugh is an author, freelance writer, and newspaper columnist. Her books include four books in the Camp Club Girls series, and Morning Coffee with James.

Reviews

[Melmo2610 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute start to the series! I enjoyed meeting all the girls and an adorable cutie named Biscuit. Fun story and mystery. Looking forward to enjoying more of this series!

[Lindsey (Books for Christian Girls) · Rating 4 out of 5]

{Welcome to Pre-Teen Week! Every quarter we’re going to try to do a full week dedicated to finding great Christian books for girls ages 8/9-12 every week day! This is Day One of this quarters’!}

About this book:

“What’s REALLY going on at Camp Discovery Lake?
When Elizabeth, Alexis, Bailey, Sydney, McKenzie, and Kate end up as roommates at summer camp, they soon suspect there’s more going on than crafts and Bible quizzes.
Haunting howls…Surly attitudes…Whispers tales of thievery…Threats of danger…
A decades-old mystery resurfaces, and the Camp Club Girls join forces to solve the perplexing puzzle. But will they put the pieces together before time runs out?”


Series: Book #1 in “Camp Club Girls” series.


Spiritual Content- Proverbs 3:5-6 at the beginning (NIV); Many Scriptures are quoted, read, memorized, and mentioned; A Scripture memory competition; Bible lessons & discussions; Bible reading; Talks about God & forgiving; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Prayers; Elizabeth’s grandfather is a pastor and her father is a Bible teacher at a seminary; Mentions of pastor’s kids.


Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘oh my word’ and two ‘dumb’s; A very mean looking girl (she comments on different things); A mention of murder; A couple mentions of thieves and gangs; Mentions of cougars.


Sexual Content- N/A

-The Camp Club Girls (Elizabeth (14), McKenzie (13), Sydney (12), Alexis (12), Bailey (9).
P.O.V. switches between the girls.
158 pages

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Pre Teens- Five Stars
New Teens- Five Stars
Early High School Teens- Four Stars (and a half)
Older High School Teens- Four Stars (and a half)
My personal Rating- Four Stars (and a half)
{Possibly the highest rating for a single book for all ages in BFCG history!}
Ohmygoodness! I just adore this series! Rereading “Camp Club Girls & the Mystery at Discovery Lake” (which is a mouth-full, BTW. ;) ) brought back such great memories—like that this was the first e-book I had ever read—or sharing this series with a girlie I babysit and her loving them! (Love you, S!)
Trying to find this series is getting harder and harder as the publisher has pulled these book and are now out of print. :( If you can get a copy of this series, do! It’s a BFCG recommended series!


Link to review;
http://booksforchristiangirls.blogspo...


*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you get when you mix 6 girls from all over the country in one cabin at a two-week summer camp? A lot of fun - that is what. This first installment of the Camp Club Girls series introduces the reader to the six Camp Club Girls as they first meet. They are different ages, races and come from different backgrounds, and friendship grows from the first moments when they all get together. Alexis, Elizabeth, Sydney, Kate, Bailey and McKenzie become fast friends as they discover clues behind several strange occurences going on at Camp Discovery Lake.

A wonderful tale of friendship mixed in with some suspense and quite a bit of learning experience make this book well-worth your tween/teens reading list. There are Bible verses interspersed throughout the book and life lessons that the girls learn. None of it seems too over the top and the girls themselves are not perfect, they are just your average teen/tween trying to learn to do the right thing in a world full of a lot of wrong choices.

I am unfamiliar with this author, but won't hesitate to read her again. I wasn't sure how it would go getting to know six girls in one book, but she does a great job of introducing the girls and the friendship without taking away from the story and suspense in the book. Great conversations, plenty of action and subplots and none of it gets confusing. I see this as a perfect read for anyone interested in friendship stories. Add in the lessons learned in this and it's a great way to get your tweens reading and learning how to grow up strong in faith and in their beliefs. I am already ready to read the second book in the series.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Camp Club Girls and the Mystery at Discovery Lake is a delightful book for young girls and tweens. It is the first book in a series that focuses on the adventures of six young girls who meet and become fabulous friends at a Christian camp. These girls all have unique personalities but are tied together by sharing the same camp dorm and their love for mysteries.

This first book in the series gives the reader a chance to get to know each girl and work on some sleuthing.

I like that the girls bonded and stood by each other. These are characters that are really good role models of how friends should support each other. There are definitely some hijinx involved, but that is part of the fun. There is also a spiritual component that is really a breath of fresh air. I always wanted to go to summer camp, and when I was a young girl, I would grab any book I could find that related to that. This book definitely would fit the bill.

Full Disclosure: The book was provided by Barbour Publishing in order to do my review. No other compensation was provided. All thoughts are my own.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book was like eating store-brand cookies. They're edible, and fine when nothing else is on offer, but otherwise not really worth it. This story is what would happen if Nancy Drew were split into six indistinguishable characters and sent to a religious camp in the internet era to solve the mystery of the grouch on the golf course. I think it would have worked better with only one or two main characters (seriously, I never noticed the name of the character who was speaking because I knew it didn't matter), and if the camp had been a little more realistic. I mean, a counselor who is practically never around? Campers allowed to take horses out on the trails alone, particularly when one had *never ridden before*?? (And yet she manages to gallop??) There's also a requisite mean girl who's really just misunderstood (yeah, right) and whose plotline fizzles to nothing, and the handy-dandy access to multiple technologies to help solve the mystery. If you really want a good camp story, try Nerd Camp or Camp Rules instead of this one.

[Hanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book in the series, where all of the characters meet each other, as well as the reader. I really enjoyed this book, and since I wasn't aware that these were mystery books (bc I'm dumb and didn't read the title), finding out the mystery aspect was really fun too! The mystery part was a little bit more intense than I expected, which was nice to find out: it wasn't just a wimpy little mystery, haha! Also I want a puppy 🐶

[Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so cool! It's full of mysteries and so mysterious. You should sooo check it out!

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: Camp Club Girls and the Mystery at Discovery Lake
Author: Renae Brumbaugh
Series: Camp Club Girls, 1
Format: ebook, bind-up
Length: N/A
Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis: When six girls from different parts of the country end up as roommates at camp, they also join forces to find out what’s really going on beyond the crafts and Bible quizzing. Where are the strange noises coming from? And what’s the “DanGer” warning all about? “Camp Discovery” indeed! The mysteries seem as thick as the woods surrounding the cabins!

Favourite character: Kate
Least favourite character: Amberlie

Mini-review: I thought this was cute. I liked how they had moral compasses and knew when they had crossed a line. I liked how they were very diverse both age and race. It's not often you read about a nine year old Chinese girl being treated as an equal with her 13-14 year old friends.

Fan Cast:
Elizabeth Anderson - Willow Shields
Sydney Lincoln - Storm Reid
Bailey Chang - Miya Cech
Kate Oliver - Anna Cathcart
Alexis Howell - Malina Weissman
McKenzie Phillips - Alisha Newton
Dan Gerhardt - Michael Angarano
Amberlie - Emma Rayne Lyle
Rebecca - Madison Davenport
Mr. Oliver - Jake Gyllenhaal
Mr. Anderson - Wes Bentley

[Anjola Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I personally was bored by this book but I will point out the "fun" parts of the book. In this book, six girls first meet at a Christian Camp and learn to become best friends. They are all from different parts of the country and love each other the same no matter what race. The girls come from different backgrounds and love to solve creepy crawling mysteries. I would recommend this book to tweens (9-11 years old). Since I like more mature and action-like books, I personally would not read this again, but everyone has a different mindset of what you like. Read on!!!

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this to get some sort of idea about it for my 11 year old. It has horses, a puppy, friendships, and a mystery. She'll probably like it. I realize I'm not the target audience. Note added later: She really loved it, so much that she reread funny portions of it to me, even though I had already read it.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book because I like books about mysteries. My favorite character is Kate because she has a pet she's a lot like me. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes mysteries.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I looooove this whole series! They are really interesting because each one takes place in different places and all the girls are different ages.

[Makena Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING!!!

Awesomeness no way can be one star awesome awesome awesome. Read read!!!!!!! Just is great and amazing! Looooooooved it soooooo look much

[Heaven Adore · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Camp Club Girls, Elizabeth, Alexis, Bailey, Sydney, Kate, and McKenzie, are quickly wrapped into a mystery shortly after first meeting each other at Discovery Lake. Why is the golf course so trashed? What’s up with the mysterious man who's always digging in the course and tries to shoo them away every time they come? And what does finding jewels have to deal with all of this? The girls must answer these questions and get to the bottom of these before their two weeks at camp are up. Can they do it?

Let’s get what I dislike out of the way first.

Honestly, there wasn't much that I disliked, which is quite a rarity. But the biggest thing for me was the lack in point of view. We had no idea what the character’s thoughts were and that made the story feel a bit stale. With it being written in third person POV, it felt like it was just a narrator writing. So, there really weren’t any emotions for the reader to have with the characters.

However, each novel is focused on a different one of the six girls, so I'm hoping that we do get that POV. Maybe for this novel, since it wasn't really focused on one girl, the author had no need of letting us in on their inner thoughts. But she could've done it to where each chapter has the POV on a different girl. Anyway, let me stop ranting about this.

I also wish that it was more descriptive. I think describing the setting could bring more of a camp-like feel, which I was hoping for exceedingly, but that wasn’t there.

Now, let’s move onto what I did like.

The faith content! I was super happy with how the author incorporated Christian aspects without making it preachy. It was like little sprinkles of truth, which I thought added a nice touch.

Practically like in every story that surrounds mostly girls, there is always the bully (honestly, that trope is so annoying) and so of course her and her “posse” would do things to the Camp Club Girls. They did cast revenge back once which was by putting a lizard under her pillow, but they felt terrible afterwards despite the comedy that came with it. Thus, a very vibrant theme was showing the love of Christ to others. Which is super important because we must reflect Him with our words, even with people we don't necessarily like. Our life is to be transformed by Him, so we must respond to people in a manner that is worthy to Him.

The mystery itself was very intriguing. The author did keep you on your toes and made you have a bundle of questions every time you turned a page.

Overall, I genuinely did enjoy this novel! It was adorable, had a lot of lessons to take away from it, and the story was fantastic. I give this book 4.5 stars and recommend it for girls ages 8 and up.

[Emily Strite · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was so fun to reread this book that was one of my favorites when I was younger! It is such a cute book, with a simple mystery and lovable characters. I'd highly recommend this book (and the whole series) to Christian girls looking for a fun, faith-filled series!

[D.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. But it was difficult to keep all the characters straight because they were introduced so quickly and weren't that memorable or distinctive.

[Naomi Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great mystery book for young readers!

[Jennifer Sherwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exciting mystery.

[Karina (Karina's Christian Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Number of pages: 86

Genre: Children’s fiction

Series: Camp Club Girls #1 As long as you read the first two books first, I’d say it’s fine to read the read the series in any order. (The first book introduces the characters, and the events of the first two books are referred to a lot in later books so if you don’t read them first, they will be spoiled).

Age recommendation: 9-11(+) (The characters range from 9 years old through 14 years old)

Summary: It’s summertime and Elizabeth is heading away to camp where she meets her cabinmates: Alexis, MacKenzie, Sydney, Bailey, and Kate. Together they form the Camp Club Girls. Suddenly, a mystery falls right in their laps: what happened to the diamonds stolen in this area many years ago? The Camp Club Girls are on the case, with a little help from a new furry friend!

My thoughts: I’ve been wanting to post reviews of this series for so long, but you really should at least start with the first book, and I hadn’t reviewed it yet, so I didn’t want to post later ones first… anyway, here it is!
This is one of my least favourite books in the series because it’s one of the most ridiculous. It’s completely unrealistic and the ending is super dumb too. It’s so predictable and I don’t like it, but I guess it’s not my choice.
There’s also a lot of sneaking out, lying, spying, and animosity toward others in this book that is never dealt with (ie: no one ever really reprimands the girls for doing it). Once in a while one of the Camp Club Girls might say what they’re doing isn’t really right, or they feel guilty or something, but their bad behaviour is never addressed by the adults. The adults don’t even find out about all of their shenanigans anyway. I don’t think this book is encouraging Philippians 4:8 lifestyles for young girls.
Also, why are the girls allowed so much technology at camp? I don’t know about everywhere, but at the camps I’ve been to, they don’t want people bringing phones and stuff in case it gets lost or stolen or broken. Yet Kate fills her suitcase with gadgets and the girls use them to spy on others…
The book is dated. They mention a lot of books/TV series from the early 2000s as well as talking about how new the internet is. They do have cell phones, but that’s also a new thing. It’s just kind of funny how excited they are about some things, while I’m reading thinking that it is so old! 😉
I like that Elizabeth is so focused on God and knows so many verses… it helps the Christian content in the book.

My personal rating: 3/5 stars. There are other books in this series I like better, but it makes the most sense to start here.

Link to blog: https://karinaschristianreads.wordpre...

[Heather Glasier · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a really good start to a series. It was also very unique and humorous

[Mattea · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was awesome.