Trusting You & Other Lies

Gr 8 Up—As this story begins, 17-year-old Phoenix is seated in the back of the family car with her brother, 10-year-old Harry, as they speed from Santa Monica, CA, to Camp Kismet, in Arizona. Phoenix is highly skeptical that a summer at a "family camp" owned by her parents' hippie friend Ben will have any effect on the past two years' history of parental fighting since her father lost his lucrative job. She longs to spend her last summer before senior year with her friends on the beach but instead is resigned to enforced labor as a counselor for 12 long weeks. As Phoenix and her family settle into their free cabin for the summer, the teen meets 18-year-old Callum, the good-looking, confident head counselor. She is initially thrilled when he is assigned to be her supervisor, but as she makes several poor work decisions, tensions threaten to derail their budding relationship. Phoenix and Callum are attracted to each other but make erroneous assumptions. What elevates this novel above the usual formulaic plot is the witty and realistic dialogue and excellent character development.