Karen's Campout

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Stephanie Calmenson

  for her help

  with this book.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 Karen

  2 Nancy

  3 Hannie

  4 Good-byes

  5 Big Blue Frog

  6 Cabin 7-A

  7 Wilson the Wimp

  8 Karen the Know-It-All

  9 Homesick

  10 Nature Boy

  11 The Big Fight

  12 Bor-ing!

  13 Boo!

  14 Help!

  15 New Friends, Old Friends

  16 Nature Boy’s Campout

  17 The Three Musketeers

  18 Hot Dogs and S’mores

  19 Karen, the Scaredy-Cat

  20 Mail

  Karen’s Cool Campout Activities

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  “Three days! Two days! One day! Fun day!”

  That was my countdown-to-camp song. I was singing it to Goosie, my stuffed cat.

  “It is summer vacation,” I said. “In three more days I will be going to Camp Mohawk.”

  Hi. I am Karen Brewer. I am seven years old. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and some freckles. When I am at Camp Mohawk, I will get more freckles from being in the sun. I will probably get a pink nose, too. That will not be too bad. My pink nose will go with my pink glasses. They are the glasses I wear most of the time, except when I am reading. When I am reading, I wear my blue glasses.

  “Goosie, I am sorry you cannot come to camp with me. You are still too little for sleep-away camp. So is Andrew,” I explained.

  Andrew is my brother. He is four-going-on-five.

  Do you want to know who else is not going to camp with me? I will tell you: Mommy, Seth (my stepfather), Emily Junior (my pet rat), Rocky (Seth’s cat), and Midgie (Seth’s dog). They all live at the little house in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. That is where I live most of the time.

  Here are the rest of the people and pets who are not going to camp with me: Daddy, Elizabeth (my stepmother), Kristy (my stepsister, who is thirteen, and the best stepsister in the whole world), Sam and Charlie (my big stepbrothers, who are in high school), Emily Michelle (my little stepsister, who was adopted from a country called Vietnam), Nannie (my stepgrandmother), Shannon (my stepbrother David Michael’s puppy), Boo-Boo (Daddy’s meanie cat), Crystal Light the Second (my goldfish), and Goldfishie (Andrew’s goldfish). Oh, yes, Moosie, my other stuffed cat is not going to camp either.

  They all live at the big house. It is in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, too. Andrew and I live there every other weekend, on some holidays and vacations, and for two weeks during the summer.

  I will tell you why I live in two houses. It is because a long time ago Mommy and Daddy got divorced. Then they each married other people and made new families. So Andrew and I have two houses and two families. That is why I call us Karen Two-Two and Andrew Two-Two. (I got the idea for those names when my teacher, Ms. Colman, read my class a book called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.)

  Now I will tell you who is going to camp with me: Nancy Dawes and Hannie Papadakis. Nancy and Hannie are my best friends. Nancy lives next door to Mommy. Hannie lives across the street from Daddy and one house down. We are all in the same class at Stoneybrook Academy. And we call ourselves the Three Musketeers. That is because we do everything together. (Well, almost everything. The last time we went to camp Hannie could not go. So it was just me and Nancy.)

  The other person who is going to camp is David Michael, my stepbrother. He is seven like me. (Well, actually, he is a few months older, which is important to him, but not to me.) David Michael was at camp last time, too. So was Kristy. But she can’t come this summer. That is okay. I will miss her, but I will be fine without her.

  I know everything there is to know about going to camp. I know about horseback riding, swimming, and hiking. I know about living in a cabin. I know about camp food. And I know about having fun.

  If you want to know anything about camp, just ask me. I know it all.

  Hello. My name is Nancy Dawes. I am seven and three quarters years old. I have long, reddish hair. I have a whole bunch of freckles. And I have hazel eyes. That means they are kind of gray, green, and blue all at the same time.

  I live in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, with my mommy, my daddy, my brother, Danny, and my kitten, Pokey.

  Only this summer I will live someplace else. I will live at Camp Mohawk for one whole week. I am going there in just two days. Mommy wants me to finish packing today.

  “Do you think I should bring my red sweater or my blue sweater? Do you think I should pack two books, or three?” I asked.

  I was talking to my brother, Danny. Mommy had set up his playpen in my room. Danny is only a baby. He cannot talk yet. But sometimes I think he answers my questions anyway. That is because I understand him the best. When Danny hiccups, it means yes. When he burps, it means no.

  “I wish I could take you to camp with me,” I said. “Would you like to go to Camp Mohawk, Danny?”

  “Hic! Hic-hic!” Danny hiccupped.

  “I knew it! I knew you would want to come with me,” I said.

  I ran downstairs to find Mommy. She was in the kitchen reading her newspaper.

  “Mommy, can Danny come to Camp Mohawk? He wants to. He told me so himself,” I said.

  “I am sure he wants to be with his big sister. But I do not think little babies are allowed at camp,” said Mommy.

  “I guess you are right,” I replied.

  “Did you pack your address book? I know Grandma B would like to get a postcard from you,” said Mommy.

  “I forgot. I will go pack it now,” I said.

  Grandma B is not my real grandma. But she is just as good as any real grandma could be. She lives at Stoneybrook Manor. A lot of old people live there. I talk to her on the phone. And she comes to visit on important holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Passover.

  I wonder if Grandma B would like to come to camp with me. She likes to dance and sing and listen to music. But I do not know if she could play softball or go hiking anymore. She is really old.

  I guess Grandma B and Danny will just have to stay home in Stoneybrook. Sometimes I wish I could stay home, too. I will tell you a secret: I am afraid I am going to be homesick at camp.

  But I will be with my two best friends. They are Karen Brewer and Hannie Papadakis. They are both seven, like me. Only Karen is a younger seven than Hannie and me. We are the Three Musketeers. We go to school together. We play together. And now all three of us are going to camp together.

  When I went to camp last time, I was just a little bit homesick. But that was before Danny came. Now I am afraid I am going to miss him so, so much. But I am going to camp anyway. That is final.

  I found my address book and dropped it into my backpack. Under the address book I found a photo. It showed me holding Danny.

  “Look. This is the day you came home from the hospital. Mommy and Daddy let me sit in a chair and hold you. Are you going to miss me, Danny?” I asked.

  Danny did not hiccup. He did not burp. He looked at me and blew little spit bubbles. I was sure that meant he would miss me a lot.

  I carefully put the picture of Danny and me into one of my books. Then I dropped the book into my pack.

  I am glad the Three Musketeers are going to camp together, I thought. If I really do get homesick, I will need my best friends around me.

  Hey! It’s me, Hannie Papadakis. My real and true name is Hannah Papadakis. But no one calls me Hannah, even though it is a neat name. My teacher, Ms. Colman, told me that my name is a palindrome. That means it is exactly
the same if you spell it forward or backward.

  You might already know from my last name that I am Greek. But I have never been to Greece. I have mostly just been to Stoneybrook, Connecticut. That is where I live.

  Here is what I look like. I have dark eyes and dark hair. Most of the time I wear my hair in pigtails.

  I am seven-going-on-eight. I have a big brother named Linny. He is nine-going-on-ten. He is usually nice. Except when he teases me. My sister, Sari, is two-going-on-three. She is usually a pain in the neck. Except when she is sleeping.

  My family has three pets. They are Noodle the Poodle, Pat the Cat, and Myrtle the Turtle. They are nice all the time. Once I thought of a good name for a pet. Plunk. I asked Mommy and Daddy if we could get a skunk since I already had the perfect name for it. But they said no way.

  Hey, maybe I will meet a skunk at camp. Did I tell you I am going to camp? Well, I am. I am going tomorrow. Wow!

  Linny is going, too. So are my two best friends, Karen Brewer and Nancy Dawes. We always try to stick together. That is why we call ourselves the Three Musketeers. Last time only two Musketeers could go to Camp Mohawk. I could not go. That was sad. But this summer we will be together.

  I do not think we should be together every single minute, though. I want to make new friends, too.

  “Good night, Hannie,” said Linny. He passed my room with a sleeping bag tucked under his arm. “See you in the morning.”

  “Are you camping out again? You have slept in the yard every single night this week,” I said.

  “Starting tomorrow we are going to have to rough it. And I want to be ready. Camping is not for sissies,” said Linny.

  Well, I am no sissy. And I was not going to have one bit of trouble at Camp Mohawk.

  I was just about to close my camp bag when Sari walked into my room. She put a scruffy pink puppy on top. “Muffin go camp!” said Sari.

  I handed the dog right back. “Thanks. But Muffin cannot come to camp. I will be too busy to take care of her,” I said.

  I will be busy making new friends, playing softball, hiking, and swimming. I just love to swim. Daddy calls me “The Big Fish.” This summer I am going to get so good at swimming that I will be ready for the Olympics.

  “And the gold medal goes to Hannie ‘The Big Fish’ Papadakis!” the announcer will say.

  I checked my bag one last time. Camp Mohawk, here I come!

  Good-byes

  I woke up in my bed at the little house. It was Saturday. Not just any Saturday. It was Camp Mohawk Saturday.

  I got dressed in a hurry. First I put on my underwear. That was the boring part. Then I put on my T-shirt, shorts, and socks. That was the fun part. Everything you wear at Camp Mohawk — except for your underwear and sneakers — has to have a teepee on it. (Kristy says it should have been something called a longhouse because that is what Mohawk Indians lived in. But I like teepees better.)

  I looked in the mirror. Too bad I did not have teepee barrettes. Oh, well.

  “Karen, breakfast is ready!” called Mommy.

  I hurried downstairs. All my favorite things to eat were on the table. Krispy Krunchy Cereal. Scrambled eggs, well done. Rice cakes with cream cheese and jelly. Purple grape juice in my purple cup.

  “You said the food wasn’t so great at camp. So we made you a special going-away breakfast,” said Seth.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Are you excited?” asked Mommy.

  “Yes,” I replied. “But I already know everything that is going to happen to me today. First I will get on the bus. Some of the kids will be shouting out the window. Some of the kids will be crying. Then we will ride up to Lake … whatever it’s called.”

  “Lake Dekanawida,” said Seth.

  “Right,” I said. “And then Old Meanie — um, Mrs. Means — will tell me which cabin I am in. Then I will meet my counselor. Then we will go to our cabins and unpack.”

  “And then you will come home?” asked Andrew.

  “I will be home in one week,” I said.

  I ate a little of everything, then asked, “May I be excused now? I have a lot of good-byes to say.”

  “I’ll let you know when it’s time to leave,” said Mommy.

  I ran upstairs to my room. I said good-bye to Goosie, Hyacynthia my china baby doll, and Terry my doll sister (Nancy and Hannie have doll sisters, too).

  “Emily Junior, you behave yourself,” I said to my rat. “Mommy and Seth will take care of you. If you are very good, they will let you run around in the closet.”

  When I finished saying good-bye to everyone in my room, I went looking for Rocky and Midgie. I found them curled up together in the living room.

  “You two take care of each other,” I said. “I know you will miss me very, very much. But don’t be too sad. I will be back in a week.”

  “It’s time to go, honey,” said Mommy. “Seth will put your bag in the car.”

  “Good-bye, house!” I called.

  We drove to Stoneybrook High School. That is where the camp bus was going to pick me up. The school parking lot was a mess of kids and their families.

  I found my big house family right away. I love when my two families get together. Then we are one huge family! (But maybe it is not such a happy family. The grown-ups always look kind of uncomfortable.)

  “Hi, Daddy! Hi, everyone!” I called.

  The next thing I knew, Hannie and Nancy and their families had joined us.

  The Three Musketeers were gigundoly excited. We did our special handshake: We clapped our hands once. We made a tower out of our fists. Then we snapped our fingers twice.

  Just as we finished, the bus pulled in. I looked at my great, big family. I had a lot of good-byes to say. (Nancy and Hannie had only three each.) I had to talk fast, or the bus would leave without me.

  “Good-bye, Mommy. Good-bye, Daddy,” I said. “Good-bye, Seth. Good-bye, Elizabeth.”

  I hugged and said good-bye to everyone. I saved Kristy’s good-bye for last.

  “I wish you were coming with me,” I whispered to her.

  Then I climbed onto the bus.

  Big Blue Frog

  I waved out the window of the camp bus to Mommy, Daddy, and Danny. Mommy was holding up Danny’s hand and waving it back to me. My tummy did a few flip-flops when the motor started and we pulled out of the school parking lot.

  David Michael was sitting three seats ahead of Karen and Hannie and me. “Camp Mohawk, here we come!” he shouted.

  Linny was sitting next to David Michael. “Get that bug juice ready!” he called. (That is what everyone calls the fruit punch at camp.)

  Some CITs (those letters stand for Counselor-in-Training) were sitting at the back of the bus. They were mostly girls in Kristy’s Baby-sitters Club. I could hear Mallory Pike and Claudia Kishi calling, “Blue frog! Blue frog!” Then other voices joined in. “Blue frog! Blue frog!”

  Finally, someone started to sing, “Oh, I’m in love with a big blue frog, and a big blue frog loves me! It’s not as odd as it may seem, he wears glasses and he’s six foot three!”

  I was sitting next to Hannie. She was singing the song at the top of her lungs. Karen was, too. I started singing with them.

  Only I wasn’t singing as loudly. I was still thinking about Danny and Mommy and Daddy. I was missing them.

  As soon as the kids finished singing “Big Blue Frog” two times in a row, Karen started a new song.

  “There was a farmer had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o. B-I-N-G-O! B-I-N-G-O! B-I-N-G-O! And Bingo was his name-o!”

  The second time around, we clapped instead of singing the letter B. Then we clapped for the letters B and I. We kept going that way until we weren’t singing any letters at all. We were just clapping. Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap! Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap! Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap! “And Bingo was his name-o!”

  When the song ended we heard someone call, “Paper bag! Paper bag!”

  This was not the beginning of a new song. It was Margo Pi
ke calling for a paper bag because she was about to be sick. Her sister, Mallory, raced to the front of the bus with the bag. She reached Margo just in time.

  I wondered if being bus-sick felt as bad as being homesick. Suddenly Hannie was whispering something in my ear.

  “That tickles!” I cried.

  “We’re playing Telephone,” said Hannie. “Now you have to whisper to Becca.”

  Becca Ramsey was in the seat in front of me.

  “Say the sentence again,” I said. “I didn’t hear it.”

  Hannie whispered the sentence to me again. Then I whispered it to Becca. This was the sentence: Camp Mohawk campers have big fun.

  Becca whispered it to Charlotte Johanssen, her best friend. Charlotte whispered it to David Michael. David Michael whispered it to Linny.

  By the time the sentence reached the front of the bus, it sounded like this: Most good campers weigh a ton!

  Do you know what? I laughed so hard, I forgot all about being homesick.

  Cabin 7-A

  “We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here! We’re here because they drove us here. We’re here because we’re here!”

  That was the last song we sang on the camp bus. As usual, Karen and I were singing at the top of our lungs. (Nancy was being kind of quiet.)

  The girls piled off the bus. Linny and the other boys stayed on. That is because the boys’ camp was at the other side of Lake, um, Lake — I forget the name. I waved good-bye to Linny and jumped off the bus.

  “Attention all campers, counselors, and CITs. Please assemble for cabin assignments,” said a voice over the loudspeaker.

  “That’s Old Meanie — I mean Mrs. Means. She’s our camp director,” explained Karen.

  We followed everyone to a big, open area around a flagpole. The Three Musketeers linked arms and listened as Mrs. Means read off the cabin assignments.

  “In Cabin 7-A, the counselor will be Rikki Morse,” said Mrs. Means. “The CITs are Megan Robbins and Jody Stein. The campers are as follows.”

  She called out the names of six girls, who were all seven years old. (Cabin 7-A. Seven-year-olds. Get it?) I heard Nancy’s name. Then my name. But I did not hear Karen’s name. I wondered if I had missed it.