At dinnertime, the girls build the fire and Ernestine gets yet another introduction to something unfamiliar: a vegan meal of tofu hot dogs and broccoli salad. Samantha and Ernestine spend the afternoon exploring woods that are teeming with wildlife - banana slugs, woodpeckers, deer-and trees so big that not even the three of them can circle one with joined hands. Some things come as a surprise to Ernestine. She’s looking forward to swimming since she swims in the pool at the Y at home - but fish swim around in this water! And she walks to school every day, so she figures hiking must be the same - right? But “there are a lot more hills here than on my way to school.” As Ernestine realizes she has “brought too much stuff” on the hike, she stands on the steep incline, looking directly at the reader, head tilted sideways, as if to say, “What was I thinking?” At least eating all her snacks at the top lightens the load for the trip back. Notably, Samantha delights in sharing her love of the outdoors with her cousin and seems undaunted by Ernestine’s fears and challenges that keep her from enjoying the experience fully at first. When Aunt Jackie and cousin Samantha arrive, Ernestine looks wistfully at her dad waving good-bye and hopes that “Dad doesn’t miss me too much.” Mann’s highly textured, multimedia collage illustrations include fine pen lines, colorful paint, photographic snippets, fabric swatches, and more. She employs full-page spreads that emphasize the beauty and expansiveness of the land as well as comic-styled frames that show Ernestine’s process of becoming increasingly more comfortable in this wooded setting. Mann’s picture book The Camping Trip takes protagonist and narrator Ernestine from being one of those “people in cities” to getting her first taste of camping in the woods and enjoying it so much that she’s ready to bring her closest relative into the exhilaration and fun of camping.Įrnestine’s aunt and cousin have invited her to go tent-camping in the woods for the first time, and although Dad doesn’t plan to come along, he helps her gather everything she needs for the trip (and that’s a lot!): a sleeping bag, backpack, clothes, swim gear, a flashlight, sunscreen, a camera, comic books, snacks, and more. “People in cities don’t understand / falling in love with the land.” So goes a line from one of my favorite Girl Scout songs, “Moon on the Meadow.” Jennifer K.

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