Dad Camp - Evan S. Porter

John is in panic mode now that his almost eleven-year-old daughter is about to enter middle school. Suddenly, it seems to John that he has a pre-teen daughter who is determined to fill her life with afterschool activities that won't involve him. He has been Mr. Super Dad since Avery's birth, spending all his spare time with her, and now she's pulling away. But John is not going to give up that easily, so when he spots a special father-daughter camp for late summer, he books a week there without telling Avery about his plans. Big mistake, that.

Things don't exactly get off to a rousing start. Avery sulks during the entirety of a long drive to the remote camp; John's three cabin-mates seem to be in some kind of weird competition to see which of them can be the most obnoxious and hard to get along with; and the camp is a whole lot less physically impressive than the online brochure that lured John into signing up for the week made it out to be.

What happens during the next few days, though, is going to change the lives of four men and four little girls in a very positive, and hopefully lasting, way.

Dad Camp is a very heartfelt novel about a moment that most fathers of daughters experience at some point in their lives. It reminded me of what it was like when my own daughters were about to make the transition from elementary school to middle school - a bigger leap in so many ways than most realize until their children are there. That's why I wanted to read it in the first place, but the novel didn't quite work for me. I'm sure there's a big audience for books like Dad Camp out there; I'm just not part of it. I found it all the ups and downs, and their resolutions, too predictable to ever feel much sympathy for what the fathers are going through as they desperately try to re-bond with their girls. It was so obviously going to turn out well for all concerned in the long run that I knew there was really nothing to worry about.

I'm not a fan of Hallmark or Lifetime movies because of their predictability and overwhelming tendency for everyone to end up living "happily ever after" despite whatever trauma they first have to endure. But I know there's a huge audience for that kind of movie, my wife among them. Dad Camp would make a perfect Hallmark movie, and it deserves to find its audience. I hope it does, because they will love it.