I adored this body-positive title. Maggie was so likable, and I think both middle graders and teens will love this story. Another one that's perfect to read this summer out by the lake!

Camp Sylvania is the perfect blend of spooky, funny, and positivity. I love that this book is coming out just in time for kids to go off to their own summer camps. It's a gentle, campy, introduction to the horror genre.

Sylvia and her troop of camp counselors were giving me Count Olaf vibes, and A Series of Unfortunate Events is one of my ultimate favorite middle grade books, so that's a compliment.

I like to think that this book will have a positive impact on young readers and how they think about themselves, specifically their bodies. Even now as a 30-something who recently had her first baby, I don't always like what I see when I look in the mirror, but I'm trying to channel a little bit of Maggie-bananas and wear that cute outfit anyway.

Another Julie Murphy classic! This book is creepy, funny, and so meaningful. Once again, Julie finds a way to discuss bodies that’s unique, fresh, and so needed. As someone who absolutely grew up watching Heavyweights and loves vampire stories, this book really did it for me.

I received a free ARC from HarperCollins Children's Books, Balzer + Bray via NetGalley. This middle grade book from Julie Murphy was another fun and thoughtful read. Maggie is excited to go to Theatre Camp and at the last minute and without asking, her mom sends her to "health and wellness" camp where the "f" word (fat) is off limits. Maggie is sorely disappointed. What follows is a nice combination of the realistic friendships built at summer camp and supernatural mystery elements. Combined they make for a fast read that will be easy to sell to readers.

This book was a little triggery for me mostly because I am overweight. But that was only the beginning of the book and from then on it really was a heart warming story.

Great timing for a summer read!
Maggie is suppose to be setting out for a dream camp summer but, instead, her parents have decided to send her to a fat camp (although the use of the word "fat" is frowned upon.). She is devastated but off she goes.
Summer camp evokes sitting around the campfire where ghosts abound but her camp is quite a bit scarier than that.
Middle schoolers will, undoubtedly, love the book as will the oldest elementary school students. Younger readers, experiencing sleepover camp for an initial run, might not be so brave. It's a fun book where friendships are made and perseverance prevails. It's not the ghosts that should cause concern and Murphy does a great job of proving that.

What a great middle grade summer read!
Heavy weights but Tony Perkis is diet influencer lady slash VAMPIRE. I loved the nods to Heavyweights and the great characters. Our main character Maggie wants to be on stage and is forced to go to fat (I mean “plump” 🙄) camp instead of musical theater camp.
Camp Sylvania just got a new owner that is putting the camp through a new regimen including donating blood everyday? 👀
I loved the way this was written and the characters being happy with who they are and being really funny and fun.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an eARC.

Maggie is ready to go to Camp Rising Star with her best friend, Nora, to tackle her stage fright, but her parents decide to send her to Camp Sylvania instead. This 'fitness' camp is run by Sylvania, an old friend of Maggie's mom, who is a health influencer. Things, however, are not what they seem at the camp. An odd all read food diet. The need for underage kids to donate blood - which is the only air conditioned place in the camp. Creepy councilors. Maggie bonds with her bunkmates, finds her first crush, and is nervous but excited to be in the camp musical. Then, kids start disappearing and Maggie sees a ghost boy. She and her bunkmates investigate and discover the camp is being run by a vampire. The creepy elements of the story are layered with comedy and most importantly, Maggie realizing she is fine just how and who she is - and she kills it in the musical like she always could. A fun summer-camp romp with the creepiness flavored in, but the self-discovery and acceptance of being fat are pure Julie Murphy and done well.

I absolutely LOVE Julie Murphy and everything she has written. This is now on my top 3. Hilarious and reminds me of Heavy Weights, one of my favorite childhood films.

Maggie is sent to fat camp against her will. She had totally different plans for the summer. Unfortunately, she is sent to a camp run by a vampire. Maggie and her two new best friends/cabin mates try to thwart the vampire's plans.

This coming of age story describes the tenacity and bravery of Maggie and her friends. Through friendship anything is possible, even taking down a vampire camp leader.

Camp Sylvania is super cute. As a middle school librarian, it feels younger than the audience I’m looking for books for. Definitely not too scary, good for kids who want to dip their toes into spooky. I did feel like it was missing some of the heart and spark I usually get from a Julie Murphy novel.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
While Camp Sylvania is a pretty different book for Julie Murphy genre-wise (from my perspective, anyway), I was drawn to the premise, and how it seemed to draw parallels between actual, “campy, vamp-y” horror and the more subtle, insidious horror of living and growing up as a fat kid and dealing with the judgments of everyone, from society at large to “concerned” family. And, while the narrative stops short of fully interrogating these themes, I did enjoy this book a lot.
I really liked the subtle way the horror was built up, with the weirdness coming in gradually. Initially, the system at camp seemed based around internalized fatphobia, and while that is part of it, it went much deeper than that, and I love how each twist and reveal contributed to the overall parallel between vampirism and the toxic obsession with perfection.
Maggie is very relatable, as I saw a lot myself in her, as a fellow fat person who also had big dreams of performing that were impacted by stage fright. And while I’ve never been to “fat” camp, I can relate to her struggle dealing with the external pressures with self-acceptance when those around her aren’t accepting.
With the external danger of the camp, I really liked that Maggie formed some like-minded friends. She already had a friend from her home/school life who she originally planned to go to the nearby performing-arts camp with, Nora, and she plays a role in the story. Her new camp friends, Eelyn and Kit, make for great companions and allies as she tries to unravel what’s going on, and the unexpectedly sympathetic Coach B is also a great source of insight into Sylvia and the camp.
This is a great read to send chills up one’s spine in multiple ways, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for something fun and just a bit creepy to read over the summer.

This book is right in time for the summer! Set at a weight loss camp for children, it had me laughing throughout (it was pretty campy in the classic horror sense), a little bit scared (Helen the night patrol counselor will no doubt haunt my dreams), but also made me smile at the heartfelt friendships that were made. Despite the vampire/horror aspect, camp life was pretty spot on. Friendships for life, first crushes, late night campfires, no electronics, being homesick, and good old fashioned activities.

I loved sleepaway camp when I was a child so this book was also a bit nostalgic for me. I used to go but never for long periods of time - my summer camp trips were always less than a week. Enough time for me to enjoy the camp experience but also short enough that I didn't get too homesick.

The vampire premise was really well executed. Lots of hints and foreshadowing but I still thought that perhaps it would go a different way. It kept me on my toes! This book is a lot of fun but will no doubt scare a few kiddos (although being middle grade, I knew it was going to be ok).

I already told my 6th grader who is going away to sleepaway camp this summer for one week to be on the lookout for vampire counselors. Maybe I'll pack some wooden stakes and garlic in her bag, just in case.

Thank you NetGalley, Harper Collins Children's Books, and Julie Murphy for the opportunity to read this e-ARC!

Maggie is so excited to go to a camp this summer with her best friend to hone her acting skills. All she's ever wanted is to star in a musical, but her stage fright gets the best of her. Unfortunately, Maggie's parents have other plans for her. At the last minute, they tell her she's going to Camp Sylvania. It's fat camp, but it's weirder than anything she could have ever imagined. There's regular stuff like work outs, but then kids also have to donate their blood?! And there's rumors of a ghost that lives out by the lake. When campers start to go missing, Maggie and her new friends and bunkmates team up to get to the bottom of it! Can Maggie uncover what's really going on at Camp Sylvania and save the day?

Julie Murphy has *amazing* young adult books and I loved her first middle grade book Dear Sweet Pea, so I was really excited for this new middle grade find! The genre of Camp Sylvania was a little out of my comfort zone for middle grade, but it's definitely the right blend of mysterious and exciting and an easy book to recommend for students who need a little fantasy in their book lives.

I also really liked the message that Maggie sends to young people about being happy with who they are in the bodies they are in.

This was such a fun read! I am here for middle grade vampire books!

An exciting adventure full of summer camp vibes and making new friends, <i>Camp Sylvania</i> is the perfect middle grade read! I loved following along as Maggie and her friends uncovered the truth about their summer camp. There were plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing, and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

I also loved the other message within the story, about loving yourself and what you look like, regardless of size. I was a bit worried about the “fat camp” plot line, but it was handled well!

Definitely pick this one up! You won’t regret it.

Camp Sylvania is a fun summer read. Julie Murphy really captures the feeling of being a kid at summer camp - where everything feels so big and scary and exciting and best friendships can be love at first sight. The stakes (joke intended) felt real and dire without being too scary for younger readers. I cannot wait to buy a copy of this for my niece and share this world with her.

I love Julie Murphy's Dumplin' books, so I was excited to see the middle grade offering. It's part supernatural, part humor, part contemporary...and a whole lot of fun.

It took me a little while to actually enjoy the story because of how IRATE I was at the beginning. After letting Maggie think she was attending the theater camp of her dreams, her parents suddenly spring it on her that, no...she's actually going to fat camp. And the way her mother spoke about the whole thing and the way her father just let things happen made me LIVID.

I was honestly glad to see her parents go after they dropped her off at camp because I was OVER them as characters.

The idea of a fat camp run by maybe-vampires is pretty entertaining in and of itself, but I really enjoyed watching Maggie make fast friends with her roommates, develop a little crush on a boy, and dive into a mystery in order to help those around her.

Camp Sylvania by Julie Murphy was a seriously fun book about friendship, bravery, a gender-swapped production of The Music Man (The Music Wo-Man!), and defeating evil vampire schemes. I adored the the main character, Maggie, and all of her friends, and how their various talents helped to save Camp Sylvania campers and their parents. Two big thumbs up!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

This is my third Julie Murphy book that I've started and fell flat for me, so I think it's just me, as a reader, not being a good match to what Julie Murphy writes. If you love other Julie Murphy books, you'll almost certainly love this one! The story is perfect for lovers of creepy things, summer camp stories, or fat positivity. We need many more characters like these, ones who unabashedly love themselves as they are. Although it wasn't for me, I would still consider buying it, especially for a middle school library.

As soon as Julie Murphy appeared in my middle grade thrillers and horror panel at #NTTBF, I knew I absolutely had to read whatever she was promoting and omg I’m so glad I did! Heavyweights meets the Bailey School Kids in this adorable and fun middle grade horror story!

Maggie is planning on an epic summer with her best friend at Camp Rising Star but Instead is sent to a weight loss camp. When she arrives at camp she starts to notice that things are very strange and not what they seem. While making friends, working on a camp musical, and learning to love who she is Maggie and her new friends uncover what’s REALLY going on at Camp Sylvania!

Maggie is excited to spend her summer at Camp Rising Star with her best friend. Things are going great until her parents reveal that they’re sending her to a fat camp called Camp Sylvania the night before she’s supposed to leave for a fun summer with her best friend. Maggie’s summer plans just blew straight out the window, and it’s about to get worse now that fat camp is worse than she expected when fellow campers start going missing.

When I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. We follow Maggie as her parents are shipping her off to the fat camp her mother once attended now that it’s under new ownership. Of course, Maggie is furious about it, and I don’t blame her one bit. Poor Maggie has been made to feel that she’s not good enough due to her weight, and now this insecurity is thrown in her face as she’s blindsided by the news that she’s not going to theater camp with her best friend.

One of the things I like about this book is that it has a lot of positive messages. We watch Maggie make new friends and start to learn to embrace her weight and appearance. At the same time, we see the camp’s new owner’s own self-hatred and fears come to life through the camp that she now owns and runs. We get to see a combination of characters who are either fat and learning to accept themselves, characters who encourage the kids at the camp to enjoy who they are, and then characters who either hate themselves or are just outright prejudiced toward plus size folks. With a supernatural twist, we’ve got a fun book for middle schoolers with some great messages that teaches one to like and accept themselves.

I will say that the supernatural twist takes a while to get rolling, but the foreshadowing is wonderful and it’ll be fun for middle schoolers to put two and two together as they read. It’s an excellent read and I’m excited to check out more books from the author, especially since it appears that they mainly write stories that follow overweight characters.