The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg

The uncles whisk her out of camp and take her back to their whimsical house., complete with art towers, on 19 Schuyler Place, which is exactly where Margaret Rose Kane wanted to be in the first place. Whenever she's asked to participate she replies, 'I prefer not to.' Fed up, the director calls her uncles who are temporary guardians for her while her parents are out of the country. Determined to not be swayed the 'Queen' camp director, Margaret decides not to do anything.

While her parents are in Peru, Margaret Rose Kane finds herself stuck in a summer camp, hating everything. Even though it's really a middle grade read and told through the perspective of a twelve year old girl, I ate it up. It's not nearly so satisfying in fiction, though. This is not a terribly realistic reaction, because, well, isn't that what any mature, thinking, Christian person would love to see happen - villains turning into 'good guys'? And hey, real life villains, y'all have my permission to turn your lives around and save a local landmark near you, more power to you, really. What I did not want was to see them become, essentially, heroes who help save the towers. I wanted to see, I dunno, maybe a little blood (me, bitter?). So when the bratty camp girls came back into the story, I rubbed my hands a little, thinking that in some way or another they were about to Get Theirs.

In the middle of the story, I pretty much forgot about them, and found myself (as a lifelong resident of a once-sleepy but still-small town) identifying heartily with the main character's frustration at uppity newcomers to her fictional hometown of Epiphany, New York, who want to raze her great-uncles' life work, an artistic trio of towers in their backyard, because of concerns about property values. I bitterly hated the brats who tormented Margaret, I really did, and they all had faces drawn from my own elementary-school and junior high days. I thought the initial camp scenes were excellent. If you care, I'm about to spoil the ending here be warned. However, again, I'm out of the target audience, and I think a middle-school girl might feel differently about the ending than I do. I found that this book started out really strong, and lost it a bit at the end.

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg