Creepy and bloody

Gina and Dann Gershon's Campy Creepy Time looked very promising, with a picture of fangs in braces on the front cover and a description that included children sent to a summer camp where they are turned into monsters and then sold to space aliens. Unfortunately, the main character, Einstein P. Fleet, was pudgy and unlikable, and I thought that this would be a good ending for him. This also seemed strained and I couldn't suspend disbelief long enough to buy the premise. Perhaps a younger audience might appreciate this more, but middle school students rarely want humorous vampires and werewolves. There is a web site:
http://www.campcreepytime.com

It is blocked at my school as a "malicious site". No idea.

Also read Felix Salten's Bambi, from 1928. This is surprisingly readable, and it was interesting to find out about Faline's weak twin, Gobo, who spends a winter with humans and becomes desensitized to danger. That wasn't in the Disney version! The preface recommends this book for sportsmen, probably because there are a lot of bloody scenes in the book, complete with descriptions of how the animals feel about the devastation. This was a good book, but I am at a loss as to whom to recommend this. Not really animal lovers, since there is such devastation, but I'm not sure that the children who hunt want to read it, either. I'll leave this one as a serendipitous find.