Maya is not excited her dad's girlfriend is moving in with them. However, she is excited to go to a cooking summer camp. When she arrives, she realizes she got on the wrong bus and is actually at a camp for vampires. She is trying to find a way to escape, but soon realizes that she is enjoying herself and making friends.

This was a really cute book! I think the author did a great job at creating a relatable character who is struggling to fit in and the struggles kids can have. I'm curious to see if there will be another one! I could see it either way, but I do think this would work as a series.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Summer Vamp by Violet Chan Karim is a middle grade graphic novel scheduled for release on May 14 2024. After a lackluster school year, Maya anticipates an even more disappointing summer. The only thing she’s looking forward to is cooking and mixing ingredients in the kitchen, which these days brings her more joy than mingling with her peers. That is until her dad's girlfriend registers her for culinary summer camp! Maya's summer is saved, or not. What was meant to be a summer filled with baking pastries and cooking pasta is suddenly looking a lot . . . paler?! Why do all of the kids have pointy fangs? And hate garlic? Turns out that Maya isn't at culinary camp—she's at a camp for VAMPIRES! Maya has a lot to learn if she's going to survive this summer. If she's lucky, she might even make some friends along the way.

Summer Vamp is a fun and entertaining read about embracing and owning the interests that make us different. I thought Maya was a well written character, one readers could empathize with and relate to even if they did not always agree with her words or choices. Her fears and doubts are universal, at least in my opinion, and I loved going along as she got a little more comfortable in her own skin and found her friend group. I think upper elementary and middle school readers will get the most out of this read, but older and younger readers that are interested will enjoy it just as much.

Thank you Random House Children's, Random House Graphic, and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this fun book. This adorable middle grade book is about camp, friendship, overcoming challenges, and a mistake that turned out to be no mistake at all. Great, colorful artwork goes well with the storyline. I’ll definitely recommend this book to my upper elementary students.

Summer Vamp is an adorable graphic novel for middle grade readers. Maya boards the wrong bus and ends up at Camp Dracula instead of the culinary camp she's supposed to be going to. I loved the pacing of the story. Kids will find this easy to read and the graphics are simple and easy to follow. Thank you to Random House Kids and Net Galley for the e-arc.

I liked it! It was definitely a simple story, but it was good for the age group it was written for. The teen angst joke at the end was hilarious and added to it. I liked the premise a lot, how the characters acted with one another, and I even liked that the "romance" angle wasn't a main plot point. It was a cute story overall and I enjoyed reading it!

Adjusting to the idea of having a stepmom is hard, but it gets a little easier when Maya is gifted a summer camp experience of a lifetime: culinary camp. A kitchen nerd at heart, Maya can't wait to find her people, but instead of kids who love swapping crepe pans, she finds herself swapping sunburn stories with kids who can actually turn into bats. She's at vampire camp! None of Maya's secret escape attempts work, and it seems only a matter of time before she's discovered and eaten. But perhaps her prejudice against vampires is clouding her judgment.

This is a super fun story that emphasizes the importance of looking a little deeper before judging someone, whether that be your new bunkmates at camp or a potential new member of the family. The art is bright and fun, and the story full of both silly and heartfelt moments. This is the perfect read to kick off summer.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

A summer away at culinary camp is a dream come true for Maya - a chance to escape the doldrums of summer and, more importantly, her father’s new girlfriend who’s planning to move in with them. But she soon discovers cooking sessions are no where on the agenda. Rather, the fanged counselors have banned garlic and serve blood juice boxes. Maya will need to make friends and put aside her own fears if she wants to survive the summer. Author Violet Chan Karim’s Sumer Vamp is a fun to read graphic novel with friendship at the heart of the story. Fun illustrations capture the reader's attention with quirky characters and a lot of heart. I would definitely recommend this graphic novel to others. Geared to those in the eight to twelve range.

Thank you Random House Children's, Random House Graphic and Netgalley for the ARC.

Summer Vamp is a very well-written and well-illustrated middle-grade graphic novel about a girl named Maya who accidentally ends up going to a summer camp for vampires. Hilarious hijinks ensue and this book made my heart happy. I would have really loved it when I was a kid.

Absolutely adorable and fun graphic novel! I am looking forward to sharing my full review on 5/13 with scheduled book tour!

An absolutely charming middle grade graphic novel about being open to change and the unexpected. I loved the cast of characters at the vampire summer camp and the way their friendship slowly grew into something that helped Maya find her voice.

I thoroughly enjoyed this zany summer tale of shy-Maya who makes great friends at vampire camp, after missing the bus for cooking camp. I will definitely order this book for my library and am certain there will be many eager readers. My favorite part was the depiction of the angsty counselors but others will surely love the cooking scenes. Some people might hope for a scarier tale of a vampire camp but I was happy with the lighter take of the mistaken-identity story and enjoyed the comic moments and the comforting messages about creating strong and loyal friendships. Many thanks to NetGalley for sharing the advance ebook of this title.

This was a fun, nostalgic romp at summer camp. Just add vampires, and you can't go wrong! The conflict was low-stakes, which is perfectly fine. The art style was straightforward and no frill; the character designs were pretty cute. If I had one gripe, it's that I wish we actually got to spend time at the camp the main character thought she was attending instead.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Children’s for this advanced readers copy. This book was so adorable!! Maya just finished school and is looking forward to a summer of cooking and spending time with her father. She doesn’t have any friends at school and now she finds out that her dad’s girlfriend is going to be moving in with them. The only solace is that she is told she is going to a cooking summer camp, Camp Umami, so she can learn new recipes and hang out with kids who have the same interests as her for the summer. But Maya unknowingly gets on the wrong bus and instead ends up going to Camp Dracula, a summer camp for Vampires! Maya is the only human in a camp full of vampires. This story is so heart warming about differences and making friends and communicating and speaking up for yourself.

Thank you to Netgalley, publishers, and the author for allowing me early access to read this graphic novel! I expected it to be a cute summer type of graphic novel and I would definitely say it fits that description. Definitely would recommend it to maybe more of a younger audience, but it can still easily be enjoyed by adults such as myself. I wish there was more time spent in the cozy kitchen as well as maybe more summer camp activities, but it was a very cute graphic novel for the length that it is. Definitely going to keep my eyes open for more from the author!

This is a charming graphic novel perfect for those kids who loved Julie Murphy's CAMP SYLVANIA last summer. Maya thinks that her father's girlfriend is sending her to culinary camp for the summer(THE DREAM!), only to hop on the wrong bus and end up at...CAMP DRACULA! That's right, she's the lone human at a camp full of vampire kids. But rather than ending up on the menu, she discovers that Camp Dracula is like your usual summer camp, just with blood juice boxes served at every meal. This is a heart-warming tale of finding friends in unexpected places that is sure to be a hit with the middle grade crowd.

This adorable graphic novel aimed at middle-grade readers I believe would appeal to the younger cohorts of middle-grade. The art is simple yet relentlessly cheerful, and the story easy to read, as Maya, a loner at school, finds out that her single dad wants to move his girlfriend in. This girlfriend has clearly been trying to make friends with Maya, and to engage with Maya's interests. The top of which is cooking.

Charlotte arranges for Maya to attend a culinary summer camp. Maya is thrilled! But...she gets on the wrong bus, and ends up at Camp Dracula. With a bunch of vampire kids.

The vamp stuff is very light, the emphasis on making friends and trying to understand each other. Maya has some hilarious adventures, gets a chance to cook after all, and undergoes an attitude change as she and her cabin mates work out differences and become a unit tied by friendship. I'd suggest this one for a youngster who maybe has some reading challenges. The pacing is fast, the language simple and full of humor.

This was actually a really happy book, even though it was about vampires! The pictures were really good, and the story was great. I actually laughed out loud! Summer Vamp is about a girl who meant to go to culinary camp-but ended up at a camp for vampires instead! You find yourself really loving all the characters, and their friendship. I would recommend this book to anyone, it is a great graphic novel.

I was bracing myself for a tired rehashing of the overdone "haunted summer camp" trope, and I was pleasantly surprised that this one took an upbeat, nonthreatening turn. I loved all the campers and appreciate the culinary elements in the book. I did think the subplot about the dad's girlfriend moving in with him and paying for summer camp felt a little creepy--like she's trying to buy the girl's love to gloss over any legitimate negative feelings the daughter might have. That element gives me pause about hand-selling this one.

Maya doesn’t have many friends, but she LOVES to cook. She plans to spend her summer experimenting all alone in her family’s kitchen until her dad’s girlfriend signs up for a cooking summer camp. With a suitcase full of cooking utensils Maya heads off to camp, but in her enthusiasm hops on the wrong bus and finds herself surrounded by vampires! Wondering why her dad’s girlfriend would do this to her, if she’s going to escape, and how to hide the fact that she’s human from her bunkmates, Maya must learn how to survive, and she might just pick up a few life lessons along the way. If you’ve ever wanted to spend a summer at sleepaway camp playing capture the flag, playing pranks, and making best friends, this is absolutely the book for you.

This is an adorable graphic novel with bright artwork that will pull the reader in and bring the story to life. At the core, this is a story about friendship, but it is also helpful on learning how to stick up for yourself and appreciating others for who they are. Though there are vampires, this book is not scary or gruesome at all. Maya Is very likable.