First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
- Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
- Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
- Finally… reveal the book!
Today’s first lines:
“The early summer sunshine streamed down over Camp Algonkian Island. The trim on the twenty-two cabins was brightly painted, the excellent athletic fields had been freshly mowed, and an assortment of boats of all sizes bobbed in readiness at the dock. The campers would begin arriving right after lunch. Everything was prepared for the opening of the camp’s thirty-first season.
A shaft of light came through the window of the camp office, shining directly upon the solemn portrait of Elias Warden, the camp founder, and glaring off the glass. The present camp director, Arthur Warden, grandson of Elias, sat at his desk, checking the final preparations for the new camp year. There was a record enrolment for the first month, he noted with satisfaction. How lovely that would look on a bank statement!
He noticed a letter on the corner of his desk, opened it and examined the contents.”
Can you guess what MG novel these lines come from? Here’s a hint they’re from one of my all time comfort books that shares a short comedic story about a boy stuck at a summer camp. Scroll down to find out which book I’m talking about.
Title: I Want To Go Home
Author: Gordon Korman
Pages: 187
Buy Link: AMAZON
Synopsis:
Dear Mom and Dad,
This place is terrible. The food is spoiled and poisonous and the drinking water is contaminated, so there is an outbreak of typhoid. Our cabin collapsed last night in the typhoon, but don’t worry. Only one guy got killed…
Rudy Miller HATES camp. In his opinion, nothing would make Camp Algonkian Island more enjoyable than leaving it. So Rudy and his new friend Mike Webster decide to take matters into their own hands. But every time they try to break out, something goes wrong with their plans. Soon the staff is on to them, and the only thing funnier than Rudy and Mike’s wild escape attempts is their counsellors’ attempts to foil them.
HerBookishObsession 