Zoo Crew: Sickest Camp Ever by Guy Edmonds, Matt Zeremes and Peter William Popple (Illustrator)

Title: Zoo Crew: Sickest Camp Ever

Author: Guy Edmonds, Matt Zeremes and Peter William Popple (Illustrator)

Genre: Humour

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Published: 1^st February 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 192

Price: $15.99

Synopsis: Eddie, Mabel and Princeton are seriously pumped for school camp. But evil Echo has the grossest, pus-filled plan ever to get camp cancelled! Can the best buds of Zoo Crew stop an army of multiplying Phaartlets from destroying everything?! Grab your camping gear-it’s gonna be in tents!

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The Zoo Crew are back – and this time they’re off to camp! But Echo and Principal Phaart are determined to ruin the fun for everyone – they don’t like camp at all! But Eddie, Mabel and Princeton are determined to have fun and be kind – even when Echo and her meerkat minions, Mario and Mumu try to ruin it for everyone. But when one of Principal Phaart’s warts escapes from her face and becomes its own entity –  a phaartlet after being sprayed with croca-cola, all hell breaks loose as the Phaartlets start to multiple – can the Zoo Crew save camp and show everyone that kindness is the way to go?

The third in the Zoo Crew series is just as fun as its predecessors, and is filled with friendship and fun as well, much like the Ollie and Bea graphic novels and lots of other junior fiction books. Here, the characters are at camp and there are one or two – Echo and her friends – who don’t want to be there. So of course, they want to ruin it for everyone. With a fun balance of text and funny images that tell the story, so kids of all reading levels can engage with the text. Guy and Matt have ensured the story is funny, entertaining and I felt had just the righty amount of gross – not over the top, which was awesome, because it’s lots of fun when the gross factor is used effectively like in these books.

The most important take away for me was teamwork and friendship – this was the thing I enjoyed above all else in the book, as it is an ongoing theme throughout the series, and I think it will be something that many readers will connect with whilst still giggling at the many antics of the characters. It’s a great book for kids who are starting to read independently as well as readers who want to read something light and fun – a great book for so many ages, for reading out loud and reading to yourself because it plays with language and sounds as kids develop their language and vocabulary.

I also like that this series celebrates the characters and child readers for who they are and lets them acknowledge what they do or don’t like as well as showing kids that sometimes we don’t get what we want, but that in the end, it is okay. I think this is a good message to show kids but it is most effectively done in the entertaining and pun-filled style of this series, which also pokes fun at our own culture at times – you will know what I mean when you read it, as it needs to be read to be appreciated. Another great Zoo Crew book!