A lyrical trip to summer camp in The Lightning Circle by Vikki Vansickle and Laura K. Watson.

Nora Nichols is at summer camp, spending the summer as a camp counselor to a crew of thirteen year old girls, the Ravens. It’s her first time at camp and she is there to hopefully leave things behind but it’s hard. Meeting new people, spending two months with strangers and trying to connect with new teens.

Through this beautiful story, Vikki transports readers straight to Camp Cradle Rock. Simple, beautiful poems convey all the sights, sounds and feelings of being a camp, isolated from the real world, in a magical place in between. This middle grade novel in verse beautifully encapsulates the summer sisters experience. I was not a camp girl growing up. In fact I went to camp once and vowed never to go back. This book showed me what could have been. It made me long for the experience of spending time away, in a magical bubble all of my own.

I love how Vikki introduces us to each character as the story unfolds and takes us on a journey through the months of camp. I could feel the apprehension of Nora as she first arrives and is going through orientation. She’s the new kid in the group. She slowly opens up to the new experiences but continues to guard her heart. Revelations slowly come to light about the other counselors and the campers. I love how she invites us into the camp culture without hammering us over the head with camp songs and kumbaya. The magic of camp slowly reveals itself making this a magical summer story for all readers.

Laura K. Watson’s simple pencil illustrations add beauty and interest to this story and help draw the readers to camp, sharing images that enhance the text and take us all to Camp Cradle Rock.