IN SUMMERTIME IT'S TUFFY

by Judie Angell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1977

Fluffy summer camp verisimilitude, progressing from rockbottom banalities (""It is so AWFUL, swimming so early!"") to a more diverting, though far from novel, brush with voodoo. Elizabeth (Tuffy) Kandell's six-girl bunk at Ma-Sha-Na starts off on the wrong foot by being late for morning line-up, and after camp head ""Uncle Otto"" fires their counselor for breaking curfew, it's open warfare. Led by Tuffy, the girls make a clay likeness (to finish it off, she snitches his T-shirt and hairs from his brush); but when it comes to thrusting the pin into the doll's ""heart"" Tuffy weakens, stabbing the ankle instead and later suffering remorse when Uncle Otto is laid up with a bad sprain in that very spot. Tuffy's bunkmates are a varied if familiar bunch. She is especially concerned with reserved, talented Iris whose parents never write or visit; there is also a friendly boy, but as Tuffy is only eleven he's kept, suitably, on the edge of the story. To kids for whom camp is a drag this will be too; for some who can't wait from one summer to the next, Angell's authentic touches could bring it back, fleetingly.

Pub Date: April 25, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bradbury--dist. by Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1977

Categories: FICTION