Kirkus
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Anna-Jane Thompson is heading back to Camp Chester in New Hampshire, where she feels like she can be “the me I like the most.” She’s not quite ready to say goodbye to her mom—but sheis ready to leave behind the “kind of strange” Anna-Jane she’s perceived to be at home, reunite with best friend Amaya, and attend the camp’s first-ever dance. Through first-person verse, 13-year-old, white-presenting Anna-Jane chronicles her days at camp, something her teacher back home called “grow work”—not homework—to nourish her “artistic soul.” At first, her poems are filled with the normal adolescent problems—is rich, popular Pooja nice or will she judge Anna-Jane for being poor? Will Bryce from school tell everyone how others see her? But normal quickly turns into uncertainty and fear when the internet and phone communications shut down. Something is happening; people on the outside are getting sick. Anna-Jane and her fellow campers must work together to survive when eight weeks of summer camp stretch into quarantining through a New England fall and winter. The concise verse keeps the story moving at a good pace, and the journal style creates a sense of immediacy, making the work feel like a primary source survival narrative. Classey effectively captures how the world feels like it’s ending during adolescence against a backdrop of a world that may actually be ending. Fans of Megan Freeman’sAlone (2021) will find much to enjoy. An intense and riveting read.(Verse apocalyptic adventure. 9-13) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.