MY SUMMER CAMP HAS MEGA SLOTHS

A boy attends an unusual wilderness summer camp, where he reunites with Yarp, the prehistoric short-faced bear he helped in My Best Friend Is Extinct (2021).

This sequel begins with Henry and his friends, including Captain Frances, Koko, and Lucas, at Camp Bushwhacker. Shifty, a young counselor with questionable judgment, is making the campers build their own lodge. Instead of mountain biking, which was supposed to be the focus of the camp, they’re pouring cement and hammering nails. Henry makes some bad decisions that lead to his friends getting punished or, even worse, injured. As he slowly learns to think of others, mysterious sightings around the camp remind Henry of supposedly extinct creatures, like mega sloths and fangers, which resemble saber-toothed tigers. Is it possible that this forest is Yarp’s new home? When a forest fire traps the campers, Henry calls on the old friend he once saved to help him lead the others to safety. While the prehistoric creatures are appealing, holes in the plot and worldbuilding detract—there’s no explanation for the extinct animals’ existence in this world, and the resolution of Shifty’s hijacking of the campers’ experiences feels unsatisfying. The quick pacing and gentle pen-and-ink drawings help compensate for these issues, however. Henry presents as white, and names and illustrations cue some ethnic and racial diversity among the campers.

For fans of the first title.