Image Description: the book-cover of Lumberjanes – Volume 3: A Terrible Plan. In the background of the cover, the is the lake and a forest of green pine-trees, in the foreground of the cover is the five main characters in a small boat. Ripley, Jo, April, Mal, and Molly are all wearing life-jackets as they are sitting/standing in various places in the small boat. Within the lake are green tentacles or sea-snake-monster body parts coming out of the lake. The green tentacles/snake body parts appear to be very close to the small boat.
Title: Lumberjanes – Volume 3: A Terrible Plan (Book #3 of The Lumberjane Collections)
Creators: Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Carolyn Nowak, Maarta Laiho, and Brooke A. Allen
Social Media: Goodreads
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Format and Price: Paperback from my local library
Rating: 5 out of 5
About The Book:
IF YOU GOT IT, HAUNT IT!
Trying to take advantage of the first quiet day at camp in a while, Mal and Molly’s date takes a bizarre turn with the appearance of the Bear Woman! Back at camp, Jo, April, and Ripley must stay on their toes as they try and earn every badge possible, which ends up being a lot harder than any of them ever planned.
This New York Times bestselling series continues with Lumberjanes #9, “If You Got It, Haunt It Badge;” #10, “Abscence Make the Heart Grow Fondant Badge;” #11, “Go Ball-istic Badge;” and #12, “Oldie but Goodie Badge.”
General Observations:
~Plot Development: The reader finally gets some answers with regards to the constantly “Out of Order” out-house (it turns out it’s a portal to another dimension) and the reader sort of gets some background information on the Bear-Woman that has been running around the forest for the last two volumes.
~Character Development – Part 1: I love Mal and Molly’s developing relationship, it’s freaking adorable, but they’re also able to sit down and talk about their “normal lives” back home, as well their personal strengths and weakness. Mal is used to her suburban life and is usually pretty tough and confident with your everyday stuff, but put her in a camp with an enchanted/weird forest and dimensional portals with dinosaurs and Mal doesn’t feel brave at all.
In an excellent contrast, Molly felt super unconfident at home, she has no problems being brave in the face of the weird events happening at camp, and she feels as though being at camp was the first time she made friends. It’s a super sweet moment and it enables Molly and Mal to their heads together and figure a plan to get the Bear-Woman’s reading glasses back so that they can find a portal home (It makes sense in context).
Character Development – Part 2: While Mal and Molly are off their picnic-date, the rest of gang are trying to earn “normal” badges, to make up for the fact that they’ve mostly earned fringe badges thus far. While April’s personality is competitive by nature, it seems like the harder April and Jo attempt to earn “normal” badges (yes, even the badge for making one’s bed), the worse things become. Meanwhile, Ripley never seems to have the problem of enjoying being in the moment, which I think was the point of the free day.
All in all, an enjoyable breather volume in a weird but highly amusing series, I’m definitely willing to recommend to anyone, but if you enjoyed Gravity Falla, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this as well.
Available for Purchase: Amazon
Ambiguous Pieces 