Synopsis: A quest for screen-free family time leads to camping chaos in this hilarious and heartwarming comedy from the author of Anisha, Accidental Detective.
Sonal needs to capture a great family picture for her school photography project but it’s impossible when everyone’s always so busy! Luckily they’re heading off on a family camping trip which should provide lots of great photo opportunities … shouldn’t it? Faced with an enforced digital detox, will Sonal’s family come together and have fun … or will the trip end in complete disaster?
Release Date: 7th July 2022
Genres: Middle Grade, Family, Adventure, Camping, Anti-Technology, Friendship, Dysfunctional Family
Pages: 104
Review: Sonal wants a perfect family photo for her school project, but no one in her family has the time to give her. They are always busy on their phones, working, or playing video games, looking at social media. No one has time for her, until Nanna plans a camping trip for the weekend to get them to re-connect.
A perfectly dysfunctional family, Sonal had such high expectations for her family, she was reaching for something that was impossible based off her friends social media pictures. I liked that in the end she realised that they weren’t reality, that reality is real life, being silly, getting messy, having fun.
This book was sweet, it showed the trouble with modern day, no one knowing how to just let go and have fun, how to be connected as a family. Technology takes over and as shown in the book it’s hard to readjust to life without it, but I liked that it showed the rebuilding of the family.
I felt so bad for Sonal she just wanted two days of family fun, a couple good photos and some time to talk with her family like she used too. It broke my heart for her that she just couldn’t get anyone to listen or do anything with her. She tried so hard and no one cared about her feelings at all.
It has really great illustrations throughout, I loved looking at them seeing what the family were doing and poor Sonal struggling. They captured the story perfectly.
It’s a really sweet book and has some great messages, it’s funny in places, it’s sad in places, it shows reality of family and breaks the social media perfect family reality too. I think it’s a great book for kids to read, they’ll enjoy the dysfunctional family camping trip.
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