The Big Swim

By Cary Fagan

When Ethan arrives at summer camp for the first time, he has just three modest goals. First, to survive. Second, not to be hated. Third, not to be the worst at anything. But these goals turn out to be relatively easy to achieve. Instead, his real challenge comes in the form of a new cabin mate. Zachary arrives at camp late, surrounded by a cloud of rumors, and Ethan finds himself intrigued and somehow envious of the new arrival. Zach doesn’t seem to care what anybody thinks of him. He doesn’t even seem upset when he is forced to miss the Big Swim, the legendary camp event where a select few try to swim across the lake and back.

Then Zach attracts the attention of Amber Levine -- the girl with an easy smile and a freckle on one knee -- at the same time that Amber attracts the attention of Ethan. And life gets even more complicated when Zach decides to try the Big Swim on his own, and he manages to convince Amber and Ethan to help him. Original and smartly observed, this story will strike a chord with anyone who has ever been to summer camp.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Groundwood Books
• Release date: Jan 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781554983025

Cary Fagan

Cary Fagan is an award-winning children’s author whose work includes the Kaspar Snit novels, bestsellers in his native Canada. He lives with his family in Toronto. To learn more, please visit www.caryfagan.com.

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THE BIG SWIM

CARY FAGAN

GROUNDWOOD BOOKS

HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS

TORONTO BERKELEY

Text copyright © 2010 by Cary Fagan

Published in Canada and the USA in 2012 by Groundwood Books

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Distribution of this electronic edition via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal. Please do not participate in electronic piracy of copyrighted material; purchase only authorized electronic editions. We appreciate your support of the author’s rights.

This edition published in 2012 by

Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press Inc.

110 Spadina Avenue, Suite 801

Toronto, ON, M5V 2K4

Tel. [phone]

Fax [phone]

or c/o Publishers Group West

1700 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710

www.groundwoodbooks.com

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Fagan, Cary

The big swim / Cary Fagan.

eISBN 978-1-55498-302-5

I. Title.

PS8561.A375B44 2010     jC813'.54     C2009-906084-1

Cover photograph by Gordon Wiltsie/National Geographic Image Collection

Design by Michael Solomon

pub1.jpeg

We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF).

For Adeline Steinbaum and Henry Fagan,

with a nephew’s love

1

WHAT WE HEARD

WE KNEW HE WAS A BAD KID even before he showed up. I didn’t know where all the information came from, or whether it was true. I only knew that there was a lot of it and none of it was good.

He once tied a rolled-up newspaper to the tail of a dog. The dog belonged to the head of sailing at Camp Brunswick.

This was Flap Ears talking. Flap Ears had the upper bunk in the opposite corner from mine, the farthest from the door. It was a nice private spot, perfect unless you were the sort of kid who had to get up in the night to pee.

I was that sort of kid.

Flap Ears was a little crazy, so it was probably a good thing that he had a fairly calm place to sleep. The night was moonlit and I could see his arm and one leg draped over the side of his bunk like a spider monkey.

He lit the newspaper with a match and sent the dog running, Flap Ears went on. Second-degree burns. They had to put it to sleep.

I heard it was at Camp Chippewa, said Tex. Single bunk, east wall. The dog belonged to the head of pottery and they only had to amputate its tail.

At Camp Birchwood, said Brickhouse, his mouth full of something even though eating in the cabin was against the rules, he wrecked all the canoes with an ax just before a big canoe trip. It took five counselors to hold him down and he practically chopped one of their heads off.

What do you mean, practically? asked Legs. You mean he chopped it halfway off?

At Blue Water, said Tiger, he poured orange paint into the cabin laundry bags and ruined everybody’s clothes.

At Camp Moccasin he beat the crap out of a kid for no reason, said Presto.

That’s not what happened at Moccasin, said Carrots. Carrots’ bunk was right across from mine. He reminded me of William Holden in the movie Stalag 17, about a German prison camp. I’d seen it on tv one afternoon when I was home with one of my stomach aches. Carrots pretty much ran the cabin, with Tiger as his lieutenant.

At Camp Moccasin, Carrots said, he stole the owner’s Cadillac and drove it into town. Wrapped it around a streetlamp. After they released him from the hospital he had to spend a night in jail.

How did he know how to drive? Legs again. Legs, who wore his glasses even after lights out, had become my best friend in the cabin. I mean, he’s the same age as us, right? I don’t know how to drive.

You barely know how to walk, said Tiger.

Anyway, said Carrots, he would have gone to reform school if his old man hadn’t paid off the owner of the car and given a big donation to the police fund. He’s always paying out money like that.

It’s a good thing he’s goddamn rich, said Brickhouse.

"Maybe it’sbecause he’s rich, said Presto. I hear his house has a pool table and a Ping-Pong table and a movie theater."

Or because his mom died, said Tex.

Flap Ears said, I think lighting a dog on fire is a lot worse than wrecking a car.

Legs said, I’m going to pray that he isn’t put in our cabin. He started chanting in Hebrew. It sounded like the portion he was studying for

Reviews for The Big Swim

[jrlibrary · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a disappointment because the description on the back of the book did NOT live up to the contents AT ALL. The blurb made it sound like the book would be about a really bad kid who ends up at summer camp with the narrator, but the boy really wasn't all that bad, and the book really didn't go anywhere. It would be an easy book for students to read, which is why I'm not throwing it out. Someone will like it, just not me.