
Author: Cynthia Ellingsen
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Trigger Warning: Previous Character Death, Bullying
Rating: 5 stars
Release Date: May 1, 2019
Synopsis
Lauren, Isla, Jade, and Archer meet the first day of summer camp, and friendship magic is made in Firefly Cabin. If only they could immortalize their summer memories by winning the contest to be the face of the campās website. But it wonāt be easy; not with rival cabins, distracting crushes, and of course, the girlās own secrets getting in the way. Can friendshipāand the Firefliesātriumph over all?Review
A special thank you to Edelweiss and Albert Whitman & Co for providing a free advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.When I picked up this book, I was really hoping for a cute middle grade read about friendships and found families and I was not disappointed. This book was everything that I had been expecting and more. The found family aspect, especially unlikely, was particularly strong because all of the girls were more different than I initially had been expecting and Ellingsen was definitely able to be able to carry this through until the end.
The interactions between characters was really cool, and not just between the main four characters. All of the characters were really unique, with their own strengths and weaknesses and the decisions that they made. And while they had a backstory that lead to them wanting to form these strong friendships, it was unique and not all super dark. Archer and Isla feel alone and have their own pressures but don't have trauma which was awesome to see. Also, they all created friendships with other characters, drawing strength from their relationships with the other girls but also managing to be their own individuals with differences. Lauren and Chef were especially really cool to read and I definitely enjoyed this storyline in particular. All of the characters had things about them that while different, still made me feel.
I related really well to all of the characters and challenges, but everything else was able to carry through strongly as well. These were not your always perfect little middle grade girls. They made mistakes, and snuck out to pull pranks. I especially loved the challenge that the girls are striving to win throughout the book and their own individual reasons for winning, especially the small mentions of the girls in other cabins and some of their own motivations. The camp was well described without getting too bogged down in the details. The ending was really cute and definitely showed growth within everyone that was there.
Overall, this was a really cute middle grade read and definitely something I would have loved to read over and over again when I was in elementary school. It is definitely worth it to read at least once. It's a really cute and light read and definitely worth your time in doing so. I was not disappointed by this book.
I'm finally back off hiatus! Thank you to everyone who's been continuing to read my blog during this month.
This summer, I hope to get things more situated on this blog and hopefully not have to take another hiatus. There are so many books to be read and things to do!
Thanks for reading!
Alyssa
Comments
Post a Comment