[Darren]

Aside from the title being what I shout every five minutes while at work, this might be the funniest GK work I've read so far. Although that's a pretty tough call to make with some of the other very humorous works, so top five at least.

In days where payphone calls were a dime and Henry Rono was more well-known, the camp milieu was more relegated to the horror genre of movies and the classic Meatballs. My own experience at camp was both enjoyable and not: I found archery, ax-handling, campfires and making bannock to be fun.

I like how GK often has A and B stories that end up converging. In this, there aren't a lot of words given to the B story but it is responsible for the climactic scene. Other highlights for me: The line "two stupids don't make a smart" and Rudy's first letter home to his parents, which is reminiscent of the late, great Allan Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", taken up a notch. The LPM (laughs per minute) are at a high level.

Gord, I know you said that you were interested in being taken more seriously when you moved into the action/adventure genre, but I see books like these in the same way I view Weird Al. His songs are funny but everyone recognizes (or should) that he and his band are extremely talented.

The only question I have for you from this is how much thought you put into character names. Giving a character here the last name Warden was a choice made for comedic effect later. Are there other characters where the name choice is painting a deeper picture than I'm aware of or is it just whatever pops into your head and feels right?

I was 15 when I wrote I WANT TO GO HOME, and every ounce of my dislike of summer camp was put into it. As for the choice of names, I wasn't very creative, I admit, but my world was also pretty limited too. My one had-to-be regarding names was that the hero shouldn't be ordinary. Not Michael or David. It had to be interesting, like Rudy.                        --G--