Cam Jansen and the Summer Camp Mysteries

Gina found her bed and started to push it back to its spot.

“We’ll clean up later,” Fran told her. “Right now we have to get ready for baseball. While you’re playing, I’ll be thinking.” She pointed to her head and grinned. “Thinking of ways to get even.”

Cam and the other girls searched on the beds for their sneakers. There was a large lump beneath the blanket of one of the beds. Terri lifted the blanket and found their baseball gloves.

Fran stood by the door to the bunk.

“You know what we’ll do?” Fran said. “We’ll figure out who raided our bunk and we’ll move all their beds onto the grass. We’ll fill their left sneakers with popcorn and hide all their right sneakers. They’ll have to hop.”

“But first we have to know who raided us,” Terri said. “It’s a mystery, and Cam has solved lots of those. Maybe she’ll solve this one, too.”

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Puffin Books, divisions of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2007

This edition published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2011

9 11 13 15 17 19 20 18 16 14 12 10 8

Text copyright © David Adler, 2007

Illustrations copyright © Penguin Young Readers Group, 2007, 2010

All rights reserved

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Adler, David A.

Cam Jansen and the summer camp mysteries: a super special / by David A. Adler; illustrated by Joy Allen.

v. cm.

Summary: Cam Jansen and her best friend are spending three weeks

at Camp Eagle Lake, where they play sports, do crafts, and solve three mysteries. Contents: The first day of camp mystery – It’s a raid! – The basketball mystery.

ISBN-13: 978-0-670-06218-8 (hardcover)

ISBN-13: 978-0-14-240742-4 (pbk.)

[1. Camps—Fiction.?2. Mystery and detective stories.]

I. Allen, Joy, ill. II. Title.

PZ7.A2615Caqls 2007

[Fic]—dc22 2006014998

Printed in the United States of America

Set in New Baskerville

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

For Joseph C. Yellin, MD

—D.A.

The First Day of Camp Mystery

It’s a RAID!

The Basketball Mystery

“I was always busy at camp,” Cam Jansen’s mother said. “We played baseball. We swam. We played tennis. And at night, I shared my cabin with all my friends. It was a sleepover party that didn’t end.”

“But Danny is in my bunk,” Cam’s friend Eric Shelton said. “I’m sure he’ll ask me riddles and tell me jokes all night. I’ll never get to sleep.”

Mrs. Jansen was driving Cam and Eric to Camp Eagle Lake. The children would be there for three weeks. Eric’s father was in the car, too.

“Danny never stops!” Eric said, and shook his head. “How do you catch a squirrel? What’s green and jumps?”

“The second one is easy,” Eric’s father said. “A frog is green and jumps.”

“Well, that’s not what Danny thinks. His answer is ‘celery with hiccups.’ And he says to catch a squirrel, ‘you climb a tree and act like a nut.”’

Mrs. Jansen pointed to a sign on the side of the road. “Is this where we get off?” she asked. “It’s exit fifty-four, but it doesn’t say Camp Eagle Lake. Oh, I wish I had brought the directions.”

“Did you drive sixty-three miles?” Mr. Shelton asked. “I remember something in the directions about sixty-three miles.”

“I looked at the directions this morning,” Cam said.

She closed her eyes and said, “
Click
.”

Cam says “
click
” when she wants to remember something. She has what people call a photographic memory. It’s as if she has a mental camera that takes pictures of
whatever she sees. Cam says that “
click
” is the sound her camera makes.

“When you get off the bridge, take the State Highway for fifty-four miles to exit sixty-three,” Cam said with her eyes closed. “Follow Millard Fillmore Road to the camp entrance.”

Eric blinked his eyes. “
Click! Click
!” he said. “Cam’s camera will get us there!”

When Cam was younger, people called her Jennifer, her real name. But when they found out about her amazing memory, they called her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” became just “Cam.”

“Look at all the cows and horses,” Mrs. Jansen said as she drove. “Camp Eagle Lake is in the middle of farm country.”

Cam opened her eyes.

Cam, Eric, and Mr. Shelton looked out their windows. They saw lots of animals, farms, and billboards. At exit sixty-three there was a sign for Camp Eagle Lake.

Mrs. Jansen smiled and said, “Cam, you were right.”

She turned at the exit and followed the signs to the camp.

There was a line of cars waiting to get in.

“You know, we can’t stay long,” Mrs. Jansen told Cam and Eric while they waited.

“The camp director sent us a schedule,” Mr. Shelton added. “Your groups will meet on the baseball field. We’ll go there with you. Then we’ll go with you to your bunks to help you unpack. You’ll get ready for lunch and we’ll go home.”

One by one the cars stopped at the entrance, the drivers spoke to someone sitting in a booth, and the cars entered the camp. Soon it was Mrs. Jansen’s turn. She lowered her window.

Mrs. Jansen told the old man in the booth, “Our children Jennifer Jansen and Eric Shelton are campers here.”

The man wore a HELLO MY NAME IS BARRY sticker on his shirt.

“They should have name tags like mine,” he said. “Please, have them put on their tags.”