Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe

Sam had a horrible experience at Camp Blue Springs, but that was years ago, and now she is back as a counselor. She is determined to put the past behind her and give the girls in her care the best possible summer. Meanwhile, Sam’s boyfriend Eli has gone on a backpacking trip to Europe and she feels left out. That is, until she meets Gavin, the handsome and athletic camp sailing instructor. Sam must try to figure out what she truly wants.

Although Sam is a 19, she does not come across as a very mature young woman. With her girls, she does her best as a camp counsellor, and this is one aspect of her personality that readers can admire. However, the rest of her thoughts seem to be entirely on boyfriends and hooking up which make her character seem self-centered and quite one-dimensional. There is some hint of maturing near the end of the book – until readers find out that Sam is now interested in boyfriend number three.

The young campers are fun and interesting with a mix of ‘the rich girl’, ‘the sporty girl’ and so on. Other counsellors also seem designed to fill in specific character needs in the novel with one determined to sleep with anyone who might be interested and another who delights in being ‘the mean girl’. Some of this resolves near the end of the book, but it doesn’t ring true.

Despite Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe’s being billed as a young adult novel, the book is not suitable for a younger teen audience. There is plenty of sex as well as drugs and alcohol. And, perhaps most disturbing, the camp staff spend much of the summer hooking up, cheating on partners and then making excuses for their behavior. The protagonist is 19 but sounds more like one of the young campers in her care. The voice chosen by author Mlynowski is simply too young and immature to belong to a college woman.

Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe is an easy read, and the descriptions of the camp are well-done. Readers see the schedule for each week at camp, and events such as the ‘color war’ and the ‘Superbowl’ ring true.

When Sam was a camper, herself, she was bullied and called names, and she is determined not to let that happen to others. She does stand up against bullying in the novel, giving it one of its only real themes outside of summer, camp and hooking up.

The plot and outcome are predictable. “My boyfriend and your girlfriend are away so why shouldn’t we cheat on them while we can?” seems to be the less than rational decision reached by Sam and Gavin. Readers see the affair coming from the beginning of the story and know it cannot end well. It is difficult to tell a summer romance from a new perspective and to make it a story of some substance and meaning. Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe is merely the tale of hooking up and cheating on partners with no substance or deeper meaning involved.