Your's Till Niagara Falls, Abby

by Jane O'Connor, Margot Apple (Illustrator)

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jane O'Connor's first novel gets a brand-new look! Abby is thrilled when her parents agree to let her go to Camp Pinecrest with her best friend, Merle. But her dreams of a fun-filled summer are shattered when Merle breaks her ankle the day before they leave. Now Abby must face a long summer filled with homesickness and nasty bunkmates, all without Merle. Will Merle still be her best friend when she finally returns home-Will Abby ever really fit in at camp? And will the campers ever be able to identify the mystery meat?

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Humor

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1979

About the author

Since the publication of Fancy Nancy, Jane O'Connor's closet now boasts so many boas, tiaras, and sparkly ensembles that sometimes friends do not recognize her on the street. She still resides (that's a fancy word for lives) in New York City with her family and their canine companion, Arrow. --from the publisher's website

Reviews

[Therese · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you happen to be nine and kinda weird, read this book, because if you are nine and kinda weird, it is the Best Book in the World.

Abby was the best, cuz she was an anti-heroine. She was geeky and sarcastic and frizzy haired and really into Dracula. The other girls in her bunk, wow, I have met each one of those girls, stereotypes or not, they truly existed. She got it all down so authentically. Abby was my soul mate. I'm gushing now. I'll stop.

Best book ever.

Okay.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

WOW! Isn't this a trip down memory lane! I recently came across a vintage copy of this light-hearted children's novel, whose existence I had completely forgotten, and had one of those moments of nostalgic fondness for my long-ago childhood.

My sister Rachael gave me a copy of Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby for Christmas one year, mostly because my name was in the title, and although I had never before read a "camp" adventure book (nor have I since), I recall enjoying it immensely.

This story of an urban New York City kid (with a fabulous name) who must adjust to life at sleep-away camp one summer, makes for an entertaining middle-grade read. Highly recommended!

[Alyssa Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of the best. Unfortunately, I never read it when I was a kid, but if I had, I bet I would have loved it even more than I do now. (And I would have begged my parents to send me to summer camp!) Abby is so easy to relate to. She's a quirky little girl who is convinced that summer camp is going to be miserable without her best friend, but she learns a valuable lesson about making new friends. Abby really learns to be self-confident in this story and comes into her own, which leaves the reader also feeling hopeful and confident by the end.

While the culture references are dated (this book was originally written in 1979), this is a timeless story about friendship, adventure, and growing up without growing apart. It's full of humor and the fun things you get to do at camp, like meet new friends, try new things, play pranks on friends, and spy on the counselors. The characters are a bit stereotypical, but they all change, learn lessons, and show some complexity, which I appreciated. My only complaint was that the adults and counselors are portrayed as clueless, even if that's normal for this type of book. Overall, however, I enjoyed it. It's funny, heartwarming, and everything you hope for in a summer camp book.

Whether this is for a nine-year-old, or you're in your twenties (or older!) and want to relive your glorious summer camp days, you'll love Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby. It is truly a classic.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abby's best friend Merle is being sent to summer camp—thanks to her actor parents wanting to keep her busy—and Abby makes it her mission to come along. Thanks to some strategic plotting and begging, the girls' summer seems to be set in stone: a fun few months together away from their families and the burdens of their hometown.

But right before camp, Merle breaks her ankle and ends up staying with her parents, and Abby, after all the weedling and needling, is sent to camp on her own much to her chagrin.

The evolving summer, from being tormented by mean girl bunkmates to discovering an unlikely ally in a new girl to camp, is so realistic and 80s and fun. Abby also navigates her now complicated relationship with Merle, who is having her own essential summer, and what it might mean for the future of their friendship.

[Sarah Coller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Next up in my pile of nostalgic books to read this month is this gem from about fifth grade. I remember not totally understanding this book at nine years old---even though the main characters are 10 year olds. Not badly written at all---very well written, actually---just one of those where the kids think and speak way more maturely than "normal" kids do. Abby grows up a little and learns some good moral lessons---and the ending is happy. I remember thinking that the Abby on the cover looked way older than any 10 year old I'd ever seen. Now that I'm grown, I think she looks like a 40 year old mom jeans mom hiding under a blanket to write her grocery list in peace.

I always wanted to go to summer camp and write letters home so I could sign them like Abby does. I did finally get to go when I was in 7th grade, but no one was really writing letters by that point. While looking for an image for this book today, I found a book of autograph phrases, published in the 1960s, called "Yours Till Niagra Falls". I'll bet the author took these sign-offs from this book. Now I want to get a copy of my own!

[HeavyReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is another that I read over and over again in middle school.

This one was in the "camp" category. I was also very fond of the "camp" category. I never got to go to summer camp because my family was too poor or because my parents were too overprotective, or maybe both. But never getting to go made me want to go all the more. (Interestingly, my first job out of high school was working as the photographer's assistant at a summer camp for kids with disabilities.)

In this book the main character doesn't want to go to camp, starts out hating it, makes a best friend, and ends up loving camp.

The part I remember most is when the spying campers see the counselors sneaking beers. One counselor pops open a beer and says "Icy cold and dee-licious!"Even 25+ years later, that's always what I think when I open a beer. Strange how some things just stick with a person.

[Mary Pagones · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite summer camp books as a child, and the humor about a young Bela Lugosi fan learning to dive really holds up. I wish my camp experience was as much fun.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abby Kimmel begs her parents to let her go to camp so her best friend Merle - who is dreading the experience - won't have to go by herself. At the last minute, Merle breaks her ankle, and suddenly Abby is the one on her own with a group of strange girls, in an unfamiliar place. At first, she's really disappointed that Merle isn't there and uncertain of her cabinmates, Phyllis, Bonnie, Eileen and Roberta. Her counselor, Marty, "is no prize either," and though she passed the swimming test, Abby is afraid to dive into the pool. As summer wears on, however, Abby begins to see the good sides of camp, and the summer winds up being a positive experience after all.

The novel is told mainly in the third person, but a series of wisecracking and somewhat sarcastic letters from Abby to her parents, and Merle, at home, infuse the book with a wonderful sense of Abby's personality as well. Songs, pranks, and gossip also bring the camp atmosphere to life in a way that felt very true and very realistic.

The illustrations also felt really familiar to me, and it turns out there is a good reason. Illustrator Margot Apple drew the pictures for Nancy Shaw's sheep books, as well as many other titles from the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's.

Honestly, even after 32 years, except for a handful of pop culture references, and the names of some of the characters, this book still read like a contemporary middle grade novel. It was very similar in both style and theme to the Summer Camp Secrets books I read recently, and could easily hold its own with them, even today. But since this is Old School Sunday, I'll focus on some of the more outdated details.

Abby is a fan of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Groucho Marx. I have a feeling that a poll of 100 random kids born in the year 2000 would find that maybe one knows who those people are. (I was born in 1982, and I'm not sure how many of my peers know who they are.)

When one of the girls spills soda in her lap, mean Phyllis sings "Come alive! You're in the Pepsi Generation!" which was the Pepsi jingle from 1964 to 1967. I think it is one of those cultural catchphrases that hung around even after it stopped showing up on TV, because even I knew it as a kid, but I wonder if kids now would catch the reference or gloss over it.

Early on in the book, Abby says to Merle, "[...] I'm not exactly Tracy Austin myself - but you're hopeless at sports!" I gathered from the context that Tracy Austin was a sports figure, but I had to Google to learn that she won the women's singles title at the US Open in 1979. She apparently continued playing tennis into the early 1990's, but I had never heard of her. Maybe that is a product of not being into sports, but it caught my attention either way. (To my surprise, after writing a draft of this review, Tracy Austin appeared briefly on Wheel of Fortune during Tennis Week! Such a strange coincidence.)

When Abby and her cabinmates spy on their counselor, they hear her say, "Time to grab a little gusto," and immediately know that this means the counselors plan to drink beer because it's from a beer commercial. Apparently, this ad is for Schlitz Beer, a company which was sold in 1982.

This book was re-released in 1982, and again in 1997, but is now out of print. Used copies abound online, however, and nostalgic readers on Goodreads have shared fond memories and reviews. If you can get your hands on a copy, it does make for some great retro beach reading!

[Karen Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my very favourite books from my childhood. I remember the day it arrived via the Scholastic catalogue at school, and I remember reading it many times over.

I'm still looking for a copy of it to read again, with my own daughters. Very surprised that the Jane O'Connor that wrote this book from my childhood is the same Jane O'Connor that wrote all the Fancy Nancy books my kids now enjoy. Ah, the circle of life. Or something.

Off to the second-hand store to find a copy of this awesome book.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this one as a kid- and I'm excited because I found a new edition for our library! This book and the movie Parent Trap made me desperately want to go to summer camp...of course when I did, it didn't really live up to expectations. Loved the letter format, even as a kid.

[Katy Lohman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will always make me crack up, especially when Abby has to eat crackers in a challenge, then whistle. Crumbs everywhere!

[Don Heiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby” by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Margot Apple was released by Scholastic Inc. as an Apple Paperback book in 1979.  The children’s novel begins with Abby Kimmel and her friend Merle plans for attending an eight-week summer camp adventure at Pinecrest.  Abby is ten years old, and Merle is eleven.  The day before their scheduled departure, Merle called Abby on the phone and told her she fell during her dance class, and she is hospitalized with a broken ankle.  Her ankle and a portion of her lower leg was put into a cast, and the cast would be on her foot 4 weeks or more.  Abby was shocked and she knew Merle could not go to the Pinecrest summer camp.  Abby was enrolled for camp, and she went to Pinecrest without her best friend.
 
After arriving in camp, Abby bonded with Eileen who is a vegetarian and very quiet.  She has with her a family of gerbils that live in a custom-made outdoor nature hut.    Eileen and two other girls live in the same camp bunk house with Abby.  Every week Abby writes a short note to Merle telling her about camp events.  During the beginning weeks of camp, Abby became infected with poison ivy, then she was attacked by migrant birds who infiltrated a lunch food chest that Abby failed to properly close, and next she was attacked by high waves of water on a camp boating expedition.  While being treated at the camp’s health facility for poison ivy she found in her room’s bedside nightstand drawer a family of baby mice.  She named the mother mouse Bambi!  Abby keeps written notes about many other stories about her terrible camp experiences, and she told her parents she wants to leave camp early.  Her parents told her it is best for her to stay in camp and overcome her difficulties.  After all, from their viewpoint, camp is a “learning experience.”  For example, during one camp week all routine events were suspended, and the campers were divided into blue eyed and brown eyed swim team events.  Individuals with the same eyes were put in same eye groups and the group teams competed with opposing different “color of eyes” groups.  For example, some Brown Eyed groups were challenged in an event called “Cracker and Whistle.”  The swim teams would first swim one lap, climb on to a dock, eat a cracker, whistle, and then swim back to the start line.  The first team back to the “start line” wins the race.  Abby was in this swim race, and her brown eye team lost the race.  Abby forms a strong friendship with Roberta who is also bunk mate.  Roberta helps Abby overcome camp challenges and helps her navigate daily camp life events. 
 
The book ends with three stories about Abby’s fear of taking dives in swim competitions; her activities composing and performing in a stage performance that is viewed by all the campers, and her celebration of bonding with her blood sister Roberta.  During the swim competition practice session Abby did a belly flop while trying to dive headfirst into the pool.  However, when the practice session ended and the competition began, she performed the dive, and it was a headfirst dive that was perfectly done.  As a result, she won the champion camp swim trophy and during the trophy presentation she was highly praised by her teachers for her ability to overcome her swimming challenges.  She also composed passages in a play titled “Monstrous Frankfurters ala Frankenstein, Dracula-burgers, King Kong Kola, and Mummified Marshmallows.  The cookout after the play featured the foods associated with the performers’ food character costumes and skits.  Before leaving the camp to return home, Abby and Roberta used a safety pin to prick their fingers.  The blood from their pricked fingers was placed on a hand printed parchment that announced they are blood sisters and bonded to each other forever.  They then buried the parchment on the shoreline of the camp’s lake.  Abby and Roberta placed a large stone on the burial site to mark the buried finger blood sister parchment.  After burying the parchment, they greeted their parents and returned to their homes.  This children’s book was a fun reading experience for me.  (P)

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a forced break last time, I’m back with Camp Reads Round 4. So I’ve chosen to cut off doing longer books for this round just to make things easier given other projects I have going on this summer. I spun again and got this which has been on here since the start.

This is a standalone book from 1979 by Jane O Connor who is still around and infact, is the author of the book series that Fancy Nancy is based on. Huh, there’s an unexpected connection. My trips to the 70’s have worked so far so let’s see how this goes.

Abby Kimmel is very tight with her friend Merle. One summer, Merle is being forced to go to camp and Abby eventually makes her parents sign her up to so the friends can be together. But Merle gets injured and ends up in the hospital for a few weeks, leaving Abby on her own. Now she must survive camp, get a new camp friend and see if this ends up changing her status with Merle.

So this was good. I’m getting a bit sick of these slice of life ones but I did pick between two options but that’s one me lol. There is some mild aimless-ness to it and while most plot points do come back, a few are left dangling. Abby gains one friend early on but gains another and the first just fades into the background.

The writing and dialogue can feel a bit corny as well. Otherwise, it’s charming. The core friendship feels believable and that also applies to the other with Roberta. Abby has a few iffy moments but mostly has a fair personality and bonds with Roberta fairly well. Some characters do more than others but most leave some mild impact.

You know how Stine’s camp books do this Uncle thing? Well here we have an Aunt. Progress? There’s some decent heart here including in the ending. What is odd is the more open nature of the ending. Things aren’t totally resolved regarding Merle and I don’t quite know what the deal is.

I don’t even know if it’s intentional. With all the build up regarding Merle it feels a bit odd but part of it feels intentional and somewhat realistic. It kinda feels like a sequel hook but there isn’t a followup so I don’t know. It felt empty but not in a fully bad way if that makes sense.

But overall, another mostly charming one held up by a solid friendship, well two of them really. Wonky in parts but better than our first two, for sure. What I don’t get is the title. It comes from the sign off Abby puts in her letters but I don’t get the meaning of it lol.

Next time, one for the younger-ish crowd that comes from Ghosts of Fear Street ghostwriter. See ya then.

[Amy - A Place to Pause Reading Retreats · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby as a kid, and rereading it as an adult was pure nostalgia.

It’s funny, heartfelt, and still surprisingly sharp, capturing friendship, growing up, and all the awkward emotions of that in-between age with warmth and honesty. The epistolary format holds up beautifully and makes the story feel intimate and genuine.

As a child, it felt big and emotional. As an adult, it feels tender and familiar, like opening a box of old letters you forgot you kept. The simplicity is part of the charm.

Four stars for nostalgia, heart, and the fact that it still works years later.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was rereading this fave from my childhood to see if I could pass it on to my 10 year old. That’s a negative. Fun camp experience but too much talk and focus about the chubby girls at camp, girls teasing other girls about going through early puberty and then 10 year olds who sneak beer from their counselor. Seriously the 70’s were something else. I have been disappointed in a lot of the books I’ve reread from my younger years.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book over and over and over and over when I was a kid. Leaving the rating at four stars and not five, because I'm not sure it's a masterwork of prose, but it was definitely an enjoyable story.

[Daryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful!

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a 1979 edition, with the same illustrations I remember from when I was 8. I am enjoying this trip down memory lane with my 8 yr old.
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UPON COMPLETION:

Strongly recommended to read with a young girl.

Such a spunky, realistic young heroine. The entertainment value holds up well 30+ yrs after it was written.

I had forgotten, though, that a character gets her first period. There were some "umm"s and "uhhh"s as I fumbled for a non scary explanation of what that is to my daughter.

I had been thinking of broaching the topic anyway so I appreciate being forced to do it because of a children's book.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i freaking loved this book when i was a kid. no joke. summer camp, or at any rate, weeks spent away from home in a bunk, tent, or dorm setting was the highlight of my year from when i was in second grade through the summer before i went to college. this book captured camp, real sleep-away, woodsy, all-out camp fantastically. my daycare had a battered copy of this in their bookshelves and i'd go back to it routinely, probably two or three times a year at the very least. it was just plain good to read.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I jus plain like reading books about the summer camp experience. Abby is a wise-cracking New Yorker "roughing it" for the first time. I found her appealing because she spoke her mind so freely, something I was far too timid to do.

[Ellenjsmellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this as a child. I remember this being one of my transition books from the old hardcover books in the children's section to a bigger girl book.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summer camp read for adolescent girls. Dates itself with a few 1979 pop culture references, but the basics about fears away from home and making new friends are timeless.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

This unique story was told through letters, and I enjoyed the way it was written. A relaxing read for the summer!

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book for young girls.

[Heather]

From "Books I have read this summer" list that I found at home in NJ.

[nush · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can read this over and over again.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

read with my 4th grade daughter! we both liked it a lot and every nite she would beg me to read one more chapter.

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was okay. I only read it because I didn't have anything else to read.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading a childhood favorite