Camp Famous, by Jennifer Blecher, follows Abby Herman, and eleven-year-old who has always had trouble fitting in at school. After one particularly bad incident that ends with her crying at recess, her teacher arranges for her to go to a sleepaway camp run by her brother. Abby doesn’t know until she gets on the plane that she’s actually going to Camp Famous, a camp run exclusively for famous kids who need a break from publicity. There, she lies and says that she is a famous author in an attempt to fit in with the others, but, as she grows closer and closer to the people there, finds it hard to strike a balance between being herself and maintaining her persona.

Abby is painfully relatable. I’ve had to go through the experience of not having any friends at school several times in my life, and so many of her fears and insecurities feel realistic. She doesn’t have much of a personality, which I suppose is meant to be part of her “ordinariness,” but other than that was fairly likable. I particularly enjoyed her character development and watching her become more secure with her growing friendships at camp.

I enjoyed reading about all of the side characters. Abby’s best friend at camp, Bells, (short for Princess Isabella Victoria, an actual princess) is definitely my favorite. I also appreciated the presence of Oliver, a U.F.C. (unrecognizable famous camper; he’s a journalist who writes under a pseudonym) who goes to Abby’s school, who, though famous himself, knows Abby as she truly is, and is always there to remind her that she’s still likable just the way she actually is. I particularly liked the way in which the book delved into all of the individual fears and backstories of the individual characters and how those affect them; it felt very natural and made the entire story feel more real. 

There isn’t much of a plot; it is definitely more of a character-driven book, primarily exploring Abby’s character development rather than being overly concerned with individual plot points, which I appreciated. I really like the camp setting; I never enjoyed sleepaway camps much myself, but I always like them as settings for books.

The book does get into some interesting questions about the effects of fame on children and the ethics of them being forced into that lifestyle. This particularly came up with Bells, who, as a princess, has always been famous, and Hazel, the daughter of an influencer mom, whose mother has shared images and stories about her on the Internet for nearly her entire life without her consent. I wish that the book had been a little longer so that those ideas could be fleshed out a bit more, but I enjoyed what elements of them were present.

My one criticism would be that the pacing of the plot felt very strange sometimes; the first few days and the last few days of camp were covered, as well as the times on either end of it, but the entire middle was completely skimmed over, which seemed to skip over some of Abby’s character development as well. While definitely not something that makes or breaks the book, I do think that fleshing out the middle more (and maybe using that to dive deeper into the aspects of the book dealing with the effects of fame) would strengthen the narrative a lot.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, and I’m giving it four stars. Abby is a relatable narrator with a very hopeful character arc about self-acceptance and being true to who you are, and I think she’s a valuable protagonist for middle-grade readers to be exposed to. It would be a great summer read, considering its sleepaway camp setting, and I would recommend it to anybody who struggles with friendships, who is going to sleepaway camp, or who just needs to learn to accept themselves for who they are, rather than who they think they need to be to fit in.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.