Brain Camp by Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan and Faith Erin Hicks

Lucas is a long-haired slacker who breaks into cars for fun. Jenna is a drama geek in a family full of wanna-be doctors and lawyers. Both of them have been rejected from every summer program their parents tried to get them into. So when a tall, dark ugly stranger shows up with an offer to enroll Lucas and Jenna in a special summer camp “guaranteed to prepare any child for the SATs and beyond,” their parents jump at the chance to get their little losers off their hands. But from the minute they set foot in Camp Fielding, Lucas and Jenna know something is wrong with these smug smarty-pants. They seem to swing from deeply dim to blindingly brilliant, they don’t notice how gross the food is, and they are oddly excited by…Euclidean geometry. And what’s with all the dead baby birds on the ground and feathers floating around the cabins? There’s something fishy—or rather, birdy going on at Camp Fielding and Lucas and Jenna are determined to find out what it is—before they end up spouting facts as robotically and unemotionally as their weird bunkmates. I love a good urban legend, and this one has the creepy flavor of every story you’ve ever heard whispered late at night that starts with, “And this story is true, because it happened to my friend’s second cousin’s older brother.” Faith Erin Hicks’ kooky cool art reminds me of Hope Larson’s terrific Chiggers. But Brain Camp is a whole lot darker and deliciously gross. Reminiscent of those scary stories you like to share around the bonfire, you can’t go wrong with this sweetly sadistic summer camp chiller.