''Bummer Summer'' is

Ann M. Martin Ann Matthews Martin (born August 12, 1955) is an American children's fiction writer, known best for '' The Baby-Sitters Club'' series. Early life Ann Matthews Martin grew up in Princeton, NJ. Her mother, Eden Martin, was a preschool teacher and ...

's first novel. She started writing it in 1980 and it was published in 1983.

Plot summary

The

central character A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

, Kamilla Whitlock, who is known as "Kammy" or "Kams" lives with her father, Robert Whitlock, and a housekeeper named Andrew Croswell, in a sleepy east coast town. Kammy's mother Annie died in a car crash when Kammy was four. Eight years later, her father has remarried. His new wife, Kate, who is nineteen years younger than he is, has a three-year-old daughter named Muffin and an unnamed son called Baby Boy. There are conflicts, and Kammy's father and stepmother offer to send her to

summer camp A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer summer vacation, months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part ...

at Camp Arrowhead. Kamilla is reluctant but ends up going anyway. While she is at camp, she meets new friends. One of her best friends is Emily, a girl that has been to the camp a few years. She also unfortunately meets a new

archenemy In literature, an archenemy (sometimes spelled as arch-enemy) is the main enemy of someone. In fiction, it is a character who is the protagonist's, commonly a hero's, most prominent and most-known enemy. Etymology The word ''archenemy'' some ...

, Susie, who considers herself "Miss Perfect," and tries to outstrip everything that Kammy does. But Susie alone can't ruin Kammy's summer-her summer turns out to not be so bad after all.

References

1983 American novels American children's novels 1983 children's books Fiction about summer camps 1983 debut novels {{1980s-child-novel-stub