Review by Booklist Review
An inexperienced family decides to go camping, with hilarious results: a bear steals their food, a skunk sprays them, and one of them decides to use poison ivy for toilet paper. Tired of toughing it out, the family decides to go to Campingland--"an indoor camping theme park"--for a curated camping experience. But the "perfect" Campingland bores the family. Comparing Campingland to their first experience, they quickly realize that their first trip, while a misadventure, created lasting family memories. The family decides to try camping in the wilderness again--only this time, they have more experience and prepare adequately. Burks' digital illustrations hilariously illustrate the family's mishaps with sharp comedic timing. He astutely uses different styles to differentiate the two opposing camping experiences for the family. For Campingland, an almost neon-bright palette with geometric figures with minimal details adds to the manufactured and stiff feeling of the theme park. Warmer colors, with pencil marks and softer details, add to the natural feeling of camping outdoors. A hilarious ending will bring another round of laughs from readers.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"We could do THAT!" are the fateful words a family of four exclaims while watching a camping-themed television show. But with zero planning and haphazard packing, the family proves totally unprepared for the gritty realities of the great outdoors. After they flee the campsite, a refuge looms into view. Campingland is an "indoor camping theme park," where every detail is clean and digitized ("Fresh towel?" offers a giant robot skunk). In snappy vignettes that suggest early 1960s animation, Burks (the Bird & Squirrel series) chronicles the marked contrast in the family's experiences camping and at Campingland. But perfect isn't always best. The smallest family member observes that the spot is "fake-fake-FAAAAAKE!" and Dyckman (Don't Blow Your Top!) notes, "It wasn't easy or pretty, but our 'bad' camping trip still made for good family memories. Real family memories." Kicked out of the utopia, the family gives the real outdoors another try--and this time, they discover that preparation and savvy can create both fun and a powerful bonding experience. Blending classic camping gags with trenchant satire, it's an ideal comedy for a virtual reality--obsessed world. Human characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages up to 7. Author's agent: Scott Treimel, Scott Treimel NY. Illustrator's agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary. (July)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
Bugs and bad weather and bears...oh, my! At first, camping seems like a "fun and easy" vacation. For a family of inexperienced campers, however, disaster lurks around every pine tree. Luckily, the frustrated family (portrayed in the illustrations with a variety of skin tones) stumbles upon Campingland, a bright, plastic-y, climate-controlled paradise, complete with an abundance of modern conveniences and politely accommodating animatronic forest friends. "Not like our first camping trip," whose details are revealed in a series of zany flashbacks that parallel the Campingland activities. Dyckman's straightforward and energetic prose makes for an engaging story. The use of speech bubbles with a large, playful font for the dialogue encourages interactive participation for emerging as well as more proficient readers. Burks's digital illustrations are full of humorous details. The candy-colored vistas of Campingland are in sharp contrast to the gray-weather outdoor scenes of the real campsite. But that first trip, it turns out, was the one full of "real family memories," and now the family is "a lot more prepared" to give outdoor camping another try and to "just roll with it...no matter what." (Uh-oh.) Emily Reid GreenJuly/August 2024 p.98 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
