Crafty Cat and the Crafty Camp Crisis: 10/12/17

Crafty Cat and the Crafty Camp Crisis by Charise Mericle Harper is set during a day of craft camp. Birdie, aka Crafty Cat, is super jazzed to be going to camp with her BFF but then the bully is there and the camp isn't as glamorous as she had imagined. Can she still have fun?

I've been upfront about this before. I am tired of the mean girl plot. I'm tired of the bully who is there just to be a bully. At the summer camp, the mean girl, for reasons that are never stated beyond the informed attribute that she is a bully likes to be first with everything. For craft time, she races through every project, even the group ones, to be first.

The other oddity about these books is Birdie's alter ego, Craft Cat. Whenever the mean girl upsets Birdie, she copes by imagining herself as Crafty Cat. In The Amazing Crafty Cat, Birdie's moments are an effort to salvage her birthday at school celebration. Here in craft camp, she should be in her element, but she's easily flustered by the teacher's questions, easily distracted, and quick to lash out.

I would like in future volumes to see some growth in the characters. I'd like to see Birdie learn to harness her creativity and her alter ego for more productive uses. Likewise, I'd like to get to know the mean girl more to see where she's coming from. I'd like to see her maybe get some comeuppance.

I realize that I'm not the target audience and my own craft loving daughter, who is, loves these books.

Three stars

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