BOOK REVIEW: Peg + Cat – The Camp Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson

Stephanie O'Connell | 4 April 2018 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: Peg + Cat – The Camp Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson

Candlewick Entertainment
March 2018
Paperback, $9.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

Beginner Readers / Kids Fiction

5/10

Can Peg and Cat figure out the winning pattern? Friendly competition between bunks at summer camp leads to a hands-on lesson in counting by fives and tens.

It’s summertime at Camp Niniwawa.

Peg, Cat, and their friends Aki and Richard are in the Gopher bunk — Gophers, they always go for it! Arts and crafts is a welcome distraction from homesickness for Richard, whose love of patterns helps him build a red-and-blue Popsicle-stick ladder. When the Raccoon bunk challenges the Gophers to a friendly battle of the bunks, it’s on!

Winning a contest earns a bunk ten points — but being a good sport is also important, and that earns five points. Can they get the hang of counting by fives and tens to figure out which bunk will reach one hundred points first? And when a tug-of-war lands the Raccoons up in a tree, can Richard’s knack for repeating patterns solve the problem?

This book series is inspired by an Emmy-winning TV series, and kids and fans of the show will probably enjoy it well enough. It offers some messages about helping others and giving things a go, as well as learning how to count by fives and tens…

Unfortunately the writing is lacking at times, there is no real feeling of character, and it also preaches about everyone being a winner which sets kids up for a shock when they hit the real world and people don’t bend over backwards to make sure everyone gets a prize.

But all in all it’s a sweet and fluffy little level 2 reader, and kids are bound to find it enjoyable, especially if they enjoy the show.