Camp Twisted Pine

by Ciera Burch

Overview

Whispering Pines meets Small Spaces in this spooky “part campfire tale, part eco-fable, all charm” (Kirkus Reviews) middle grade novel about a girl whose first summer camp experience is disrupted by a menacing creature abducting her fellow campers.

Eleven-year-old Naomi loves all things outdoors—birds and beetles, bats and bunnies—in theory. She explores nature in the best possible way: the cold, hard facts in books. So when her parents’ announcement of their impending divorce comes hand in hand with sending Naomi and her younger twin brothers to summer camp while they figure things out, it’s salt in the wound for Naomi and her avoidance of hands-on experience.

Camp Twisted Pine could be worse. The counselors are nice, and Naomi likes her cabinmates, especially Jackie, whose blunt personality and frank dislike of the camp draw Naomi in quickly. Jackie is also hard of hearing and uses a hearing aid, and the girls quickly develop a routine of sign language lessons in their free time, which Naomi sees as a welcome break when all the s’mores-making and nature walks get to be a bit much.

But the campers aren’t the only ones who roam the grounds of Camp Twisted Pine. When people start to go missing, including Jackie, Naomi has to find a way to save everyone—and herself. Her practical knowledge of the outdoors may still be rudimentary at best, but she has years of studying and the scientific method to fall back on. Can Naomi identify and stop the dangerous predator before it’s too late?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665930598
Publisher:	Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date:	09/17/2024
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Ciera Burch is a lifelong writer and ice cream aficionado. She has a BA from American University and an MFA from Emerson College. Her fiction has appeared in The American Literary Magazine, Underground, Five Points, Stork, and Blackbird. Her work was also chosen as the 2019 One City One Story read for the Boston Book Festival. While she is originally from New Jersey, she currently resides in Washington, DC, with her stuffed animals, plants, and far too many books. Visit Ciera at CieraBurch.com.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1: A Little Fresh Air Never Hurt Anybody 1 A Little Fresh Air Never Hurt Anybody
A dozen kids in matching T-shirts smiled up at Naomi from the front of the brochure she held. They were stacked on top of one another like Legos, balancing to form a pyramid that didn’t quite look like it could have a peak without an extra person.

Join us, the kids said with their smiles, as if flashing teeth and the promise of pyramid building would be enough to convince her if the information inside couldn’t.

Naomi frowned down at them. She did very few things without researching them first, but this time her dad had done the research for her. Supposedly.

“It’ll be great, Nomi!” he said, apparently in league with the pyramid-building kids.

He was waving his own brochure around in that excitable, wiggly way he got that always reminded her of the twins, and flipped through the laminated pages, obviously not reading so much as remembering. “It’s quiet out there and they have all kinds of new things for you to try: swimming, archery, even pottery, I think. And the hikes are supposed to be pretty good! The group leaders tell you all about the ecosystem up there, the trees and insects you’re seeing, all of it. Besides, a little fresh air never hurt anybody.”

“Have you been there?”

He blinked. “What?”

“Have you been there?” She held up her brochure, watching the way CAMP TWISTED PINE, raised to the touch and written in bright yellow, reflected her overhead light. The camp name didn’t inspire much confidence or excitement.

“Well, no, but—”

“So how do you know it will be great?”

Naomi—not Nomi, thank you very much, though no one in her house listened to her about that, her dad least of all—liked facts. Things that were real and true and provable. Liking something was not a fact. It was an opinion. Worse, in her dad’s case it was a guess.

Dad sighed, reining himself in. He placed the brochure neatly in his lap before twisting to face her from his seat on the edge of her bed. “It’s called being optimistic. It sounds like it will be great, so I’m assuming it will be. Go’head, take a peek.”

She squinted at the booklet in front of her before flipping it open. “‘Camp Twisted Pine, named after our favorite three-hundred-year-old tree nearby, offers you the chance to get out of the city, take in some fresh air, and explore someplace much greener than the concrete jungle,’” she read aloud. “‘Come experience bonfires, sunsets, and more at our sleepaway camp tucked into the heart of the Pine Barrens.’”

Inside there were more pictures and more smiling kids. Kids playing volleyball. Kids swimming in a lake too blue to actually be in New Jersey. Kids in a line, surrounded by trees on all sides as they crested the top of a hill. They all had matching temporary tattoos, a half circle with lines coming out of it that looked like a sunrise. Did the smiling mean they were actually having fun? Or were they all just being optimistic too?

Naomi shut the brochure. “No, thank you.”

Her dad sighed again. He did that a lot lately. Heavy, shoulder-melting exhales that always made her feel a little guilty somehow. “What don’t you like about it?”

What did she like about it?

Staying in a cramped cabin, swimming in a probably polluted lake, and eating burnt marshmallows off of sticks they’d found on the ground didn’t sound like fun. It sounded like the opposite of fun. If there was a monster, assuming that monsters were real in some world or another, that devoured everything fun, it would probably skip right over this camp.

“I just want to stay here,” she said instead, “like we always do.”

It was finally summertime, which meant it was time for Dad-ventures where Naomi, her dad, and the twins, Aman and Omar, wrote down all the places they wanted to go and the things they wanted to do and threw all the suggestions into an old Phillies hat. Every Monday, someone picked two things and those were their activities for the week. Sometimes it meant eating ice cream until their stomachs hurt, like Aman loved putting in. Other times it was trips to the library or the butterfly garden or lunch on top of one of the skyscrapers in the city that were so high up, Naomi had to keep her eyes shut as she ate, feeling around on her plate for the roundness of blueberries or the ridges of potato chips.

“This summer’s different, kiddo,” her dad said softly.

Naomi knew that. And she hated it.

She looked around her room that was half normal mess, half organized one. Dad had come to help her clear it of the last bits of elementary school but so far all he’d done was tell her about camp and all she’d done was conjure up memories for everything she touched, like the first science quiz she’d ever gotten extra credit on or the mushroom-shaped eraser she’d gotten from a book fair back in first grade.

Dad was wrong. This summer wasn’t just different—it was the start of a different life, one where she didn’t see her dad every day. How could she explain to him that if everything else had to change, she needed this summer to stay the same as it had always been?

She couldn’t.

Science was her thing. Explaining herself to her parents? Not so much.

So, she did what she always did when it felt like things were overwhelming for everyone around her. She shoved her own worry deep down inside and reached for the soft smile that almost always got her one in return.

“You’re so easy compared to the boys, baby,” Mom had told her once, a long time ago. “It’s such a relief.”

It had made her feel good then. Proud. And she’d settled into the role as best she could since. Easy Naomi. Quiet Naomi. Responsible Naomi. After a little while, it just became part of who she was. She liked making things easier for other people. Especially if it meant focusing on her own feelings a little less.

“I’ll think about it,” she promised.

Her dad perked up. “Good. Good! Your brothers are on board, so it’s just up to you, Nomi.” He stood, the bed squeaking as he did so. “It’s a good place, baby girl. You’ll see.”

He kissed the top of her head and strode out of the room. Naomi turned her attention back to the brochure. Kids still smiled up at her. The forest stood tall and proud in the background, behind a handful of colorful buildings and log cabins. She didn’t see a twisted pine tree anywhere.

She flipped the page.

“?‘The Pinelands,’” she read aloud.

She reached for her backpack, digging out the observation journal safely tucked inside. This was her second one. The first was on her bookshelf, full of sketches of plants and small creatures she’d seen on previous field trips or in the nature books she checked out from the library. She could learn so much more about things online or in books than she could by just staring at them, she was sure, but she still liked seeing things, she supposed. And the brochure was right about something—there was probably more to see up there than in her city. Here, there wasn’t even a park close enough to walk to, and she knew how much the twins liked being outside.

Naomi sighed, tucking the brochure into her journal. She’d do what she promised her dad she would.

She’d think about it.

Editorial Reviews

Eleven-year-old Naomi Samuels spends the summer between elementary and middle school enduring both familial and paranormal aggravation in this sleepaway camp thriller by Burch (Finch House). Sent to Camp Twisted Pine by their parents, Naomi and her younger twin brothers Aman and Omar find themselves in the New Jersey Pine Barrens while the adults navigate a waning marriage. Apprehensive about the experience, science-minded Naomi nevertheless finds much to observe in the surrounding woods and befriends fellow camper Jackie, who wears hearing aids and teaches Naomi American Sign Language. Despite Naomi’s more logical thinking, she’s affected by a campfire story about the Jersey Devil and believes she encounters the folkloric creature during an unsupervised forest outing. Her fears that there’s something sinister about Camp Twisted Pine are confirmed when campers—including Aman—begin disappearing into the woods, setting Naomi on a rescue mission in a story that mixes light thrills, natural magic, and local legend. Initial horror movie flourishes give way to depictions of Naomi’s changing family relationships, stressing the interpersonal dynamics of summer camp and lending a gentler feel to this introspective dark fantasy adventure. Characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 8–12. Agent: Trinica Sampson-Vera, New Leaf Literary. (Sept.)

7/15/2024 - Publishers Weekly

Preteen Naomi likes learning about nature from books and the internet, not from firsthand experience.

But Naomi’s parents need some time to figure out their divorce, so she’s going off with her younger twin brothers, Aman and Omar, to Camp Twisted Pine in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Camp is just as miserable as she predicted, but Naomi manages to make friends with (and maybe develop a hint of a crush on) Jackie, a hard-of-hearing girl who uses both English and ASL. Naomi’s logical, rational mind makes it hard for her to bond with her other cabinmates, especially when they start telling stories about the Jersey Devil. But maybe the Jersey Devil is real—and maybe he’s kidnapping campers. Or maybe the oddly young head counselor has something to do with the mysterious disappearances? Then there’s the highly invasive and subtly unnatural kudzu that’s growing throughout the forest. Naomi is a lovable, nerdy protagonist who resides in a world where the adults, though often well meaning, aren’t listening and it’s up to the kids to save the day. The story is fun and gently spooky with no real scares, and it’s likely to spark readers’ interest in ecosystems and conservation. A genuine love and knowledge of the Pine Barrens is evident in the details of the setting. Naomi presents Black, and the supporting cast is racially diverse.

Part campfire tale, part eco-fable, all charm. (Paranormal. 8-12)

8/1/24 - Kirkus Reviews

2024-07-04
Preteen Naomi likes learning about nature from books and the internet,not from firsthand experience.

But Naomi’s parents need some time to figure out their divorce, so she’s going off with her younger twin brothers, Aman and Omar, to Camp Twisted Pine in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Camp is just as miserable as she predicted, but Naomi manages to make friends with (and maybe develop a hint of a crush on) Jackie, a hard-of-hearing girl who uses both English and ASL. Naomi’s logical, rational mind makes it hard for her to bond with her other cabinmates, especially when they start telling stories about the Jersey Devil. But maybe the Jersey Devil is real—and maybe he’s kidnapping campers. Or maybe the oddly young head counselor has something to do with the mysterious disappearances? Then there’s the highly invasive and subtly unnatural kudzu that’s growing throughout the forest. Naomi is a lovable, nerdy protagonist who resides in a world where the adults, though often well meaning, aren’t listening and it’s up to the kids to save the day. The story is fun and gently spooky with no real scares, and it’s likely to spark readers’ interest in ecosystems and conservation. A genuine love and knowledge of the Pine Barrens is evident in the details of the setting. Naomi presents Black, and the supporting cast is racially diverse.

Part campfire tale, part eco-fable, all charm.(Paranormal. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews