The Order of the Poison Oak
Brent Hartinger
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 HarperTempest
ISBN: 0060567309

Russ can't wait for summer to be a counselor with his best friends at Camp Serenity.

There he hopes to escape his identity as the token gay guy at school by spending the summer among strangers at a camp for burn victims. At first he finds controlling his cabin of 10-year-old hellions grueling until he charms them with a retelling of a fable based on a Native American legend.

Russel adapts the tale of a multicolored crow who is burnt soot black by fire to infuse his deeply scarred & scared, campers with a new way to look at who they are & what they have survived. Suddenly he has no trouble taming them. In an inspired moment, in the dark of night, he takes them out into the wilderness & creates the Order of the Poison Oak, a club dedicated to outcasts of all types. Except one of his campers wonders why Russel is a member, & thus he is “outed”.

Meanwhile, of course, Russel has fallen for dashingly handsome “bad boy” Web, who is playing both sides of the love angle by encouraging Min, & things get hot & steamy.

&, naturally, Russel has to play matchmaker for his best buddy Gunnar & Em, a girl counselor. & then there's the deeply scarred Otto who plays a quitar & sings beautiful songs around the camp fire.

& when a forest fire comes too close for comfort, & the camp has to be evacuated, everyone's mettle is tested, & Russel finds someone real to love & be loved by.

The Order of the Poison Oak is the story of Indian legends, skinny-dipping in moonlit coves, passionate summer romances, losing & regaining friendships, & an understanding of life's hidden beauty & its sometimes painful sting.

Some readers may balk at equating the disfigurement of burn scars with the tribulations of being gay in a straight world, however, The Order of the Poison Oak, like The Geography Class is told from Russel's point of view & is, therefore, full of his teenage angst, philosophies & humor.

An exciting & memorable read for Grade 7 & up.

Do visit “Brent's Brain” at www.brenthartinger.com & join The Order of the Poison Oak.

More from Brent Hartinger: The Geography Class & The Last Chance Texaco, & Do catch my Interview with this fine author.
(06/19/05)

Rebecca