Name: Sarah Sammis's review of Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe by Sarah Mlynowski
Item: Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe
Rating: 5
Author: Sarah Sammis

Sarah Mlynowski

Perfect for fans of 99 Days and Anna and the French Kiss, this unforgettable, sun-drenched summer romance from one of YA’s bestselling and most beloved authors, Sarah Mlynowski, is an irresistible dive into the joys of seizing the day and embracing the unexpected. Sam’s summer isn’t off to a great start. Her boyfriend, Eli, ditched her for a European backpacking trip, and now she’s a counselor at Camp Blue Springs: the summer camp her eleven-year-old self swore never to return to. Sam expects the next seven weeks to be a total disaster. That is, until she meets Gavin, the camp’s sailing instructor, who turns her expectations upside down. Gavin may have gotten the job just for his abs. Or that smile. Or the way he fills Sam’s free time with thrilling encounters—swimming under a cascade of stars, whispering secrets over s’mores, embarking on one (very precarious) canoe ride after dark. It’s absurd. After all, Sam loves Eli. But one totally absurd, completely off-the-wall summer may be just what Sam needs. And maybe, just maybe, it will teach her something about what she really wants.

Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe

Samantha

Perfect for fans of 99 Days and Anna and the French Kiss, this unforgettable, sun-drenched summer romance from one of YA's bestselling and most beloved authors, Sarah Mlynowski, is an irresistible dive into the joys of seizing the day and embracing the unexpected. Sam's summer isn't off to a great start. Her boyfriend, Eli, ditched her for a European backpacking trip, and now she's a counselor at Camp Blue Springs: the summer camp her eleven-year-old self swore never to return to. Sam expects the next seven weeks to be a total disaster. That is, until she meets Gavin, the camp's sailing instructor, who turns her expectations upside down. Gavin may have gotten the job just for his abs. Or that smile. Or the way he fills Sam's free time with thrilling encounters--swimming under a cascade of stars, whispering secrets over s'mores, embarking on one (very precarious) canoe ride after dark. It's absurd. After all, Sam loves Eli. But one totally absurd, completely off-the-wall summer may be just what Sam needs. And maybe, just maybe, it will teach her something about what she really wants.

Sarah Sammis

Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe by Sarah Mlynowski is a companion piece to I See London, I See France (2017). Sam, the protagonist, is the girlfriend of Eli, one of the Americans Sydney and Leela meet midway through the novel. The hot sailing instructor, Gavin, is the boyfriend of Kat, the woman they stay with in Paris. That said, both books stand alone just fine and can be read separately or in either order.

Samantha "Sam" Rosenspan has been invited by "Danish" to work as a camp counselor for the junior girls in Bunk 6. She'll be there for six weeks, slightly longer than Eli's backpacking trip through Europe. She'll have the same group of girls and the same counselor bunkmates for the entire time.

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Sven Test

Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe wasn't what I was expecting. I guess I went in expecting a really fun summer camp story. While it was, there was too much drama with Sam that it was difficult to enjoy everything else.

Sam gets offered a chance to go back to camp as a counselor. She's hesitant since she didn't have the best memories there, but she still ends up going. She needed something to do since her boyfriend is traveling through Europe. It is there she meets Gavin, a guy who has a girlfriend. 

This is where things go downhill. At first, everything was fun and enjoyable. I was loving the camp activities and the secondary cast, as well as the kids, so much! It is when Sam starts thinking about Gavin with flirty thoughts that things shifted for me. I'm most irritated by the fact that Sam is 19-years-old, yet she's acting like a 15-year-old. It was upsetting to and cringy to read her thoughts.

What I was mostly upset with was how Sam was mostly nonchalant about cheating. Sure, she'd have times where she would realize what she was doing was wrong. But she mostly cared about having fun with Gavin, not taking Eli, her boyfriend, into consideration. There were times where she wasn't even sure why she was cheating. She was doing it just because. 

Taking Sam out of the equation, the rest of the book was enjoyable. I loved reading about color wars, freeze, and just all of the activities this camp had to offer. I loved that the kids were so present in the story. I especially loved the characters Botts and Jannelle. Both of these characters should have gotten more attention than they did. Jannelle brought so much spice and fire and energy to the story, and Botts brought a calmness and maturity that Sam and Gavin were definitely lacking.

Overall, Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe wasn't my cup of tea.

Sammie Piotrowski

Honestly, I loved this book. It was such a feel-good summer story. I love the kids (especially Fancy and Prague), I love Sam, I love all the quirky characters, and I loved the overall feel. It made me desperately want to go to summer camp again. I love the authenticity of the love story and the characters involved, as well as the ending. It’s such a satisfying ending that wraps things up while leaving the possibility of a sequel. 

I especially love Sam’s development outside of the love story. She goes into camp still holding onto the mindset of the 11 year old girl who was bullied into never coming back, but as she watches all the kids and counselors interact, she learns to embrace herself and camp again.

Overall, was this book a profound work of art that I’ll think about for years to come? No. Is it a sweet book that I could read again and again? Absolutely. I am super happy to have found this on my library’s “New Arrivals” shelf and recommend to anyone who needs a light read!

*SPOILERS BELOW HERE*

Edit: After reading other reviews, I do agree that cheating is somewhat romanticized in this book. However, I think Sam’s rationalization is representative of the maturity of a nineteen year old in her first relationship. It seems entirely realistic to me that a young woman who is experiencing being away from her partner for the first time would not fully trust him, and would struggle with fidelity herself. Does this make it okay? No. But I think it works in the context of the story. And as for consequences, what more should have happened? She hadn’t even been with Eli for a year, they didn’t live together, the most they could do was break up and I think that’s how it would have played out IRL, just maybe with some more fighting. And Gavin and Kat were together for less than 6 months before camp, so it makes sense that his relationship was easier to give up and later rekindle bc their trust level wasn’t as high when the cheating happened.

Also on the note of Sam’s nickname, I can 100% understand holding on to something that seems so insignificant. As someone who had some rather traumatic things said to me when I was younger, they stick with you. For Sam, she was shamed for being more developed than other girls and made to feel that she did something wrong by existing differently than them. I personally went through the same rapid maturing and it sticks with you when people make you feel “other” over something you cant control. I feel that the way Mlynowski describes the effects of this bullying is extremely accurate to how a girl Sam’s age would process this (coming from a 17 year old who struggles with the same issues). I think it’s an important perspective for girls in the target age of this book.

Samantha &
Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe by Sarah Mlynowski

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