Arthur's Camp-Out

March 1, 1993
Gr. 1-2. Cheerful line-and-watercolor artwork illustrates this episodic story from Hoban's Arthur series. Whiling away a spring day, the young chimp puts down his little sister Violet's bits of nature lore as "baby science," and decides to go on a field trip without her "to collect frogs and worms and snakes--slimy things that you would not like." When Violet's friends invite her for a girls-only camp-out, he annoys them by offering to come along to protect them. Rebuffed, he decides to do a little solo camping instead. After a series of misadventures, a wet, tired, hungry, and humbled Arthur joins the girls around their campfire after all. Not the best of the series, but still a pleasant excursion for Arthur's many fans. ((Reviewed Mar. 1, 1993))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1993, American Library Association.)

January 1, 1993
Arthur reveals his vulnerability and gets his comeuppance in the ninth story about the chimpanzee. After smugly telling his sister, Violet, that because he thinks she is afraid of slimy things, she cannot accompany him on a camping trip, Arthur goes on to have a wet, foodless, terror-filled night. Convincing dialogue, bright illustrations, and a satisfying conclusion, complete with Violet's unobtrusive ecology lesson on the importance of bats, round out the latest entry in the popular series.

(Copyright 1993 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)