Peace I Ask of Thee Oh River
Lyda Phillips
IUniverse

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Winn ing Read … Recommended … 4 stars

Chapter 1 entitled ‘Back From Civilization’ brings the reader face to face with ‘Eleanor’. ‘My mother is making me write this.” El does not want to get out of bed. Mom is determined to get her daughter on her feet and moving. First she came got El’s PJs to put into the wash, she tried to get El downstairs, and now she has returned with a pen and a journal.

El is struggling with the events of the summer. As a child El Campbell spent her summers at Camp Nichia and this summer she was camp counselor. El will teach the campers all Nichia’s traditions, rituals and the like. When camper Tiffin Ramsey appears El’s perfect summer quickly slides down hill.

The summer started pretty normally, in fact everything was going pretty great. El looks forward to a summer filled with fun and the joys of being accepted as an adult. El and best friend Katie drove to the camp grounds together, together with all the other counselors they receive their cabin assignments, and a little ‘background’ information concerning one camper. According to reports Tiffin is perhaps headstrong and ‘a little spoiled.’

Tiffin Ramsey; Tiffin, twelve years old, angry, out of control, daughter of the man campaigning to be the state’s governor is a not a happy camper. She bites a fellow camper during the first hour.

El and Katie are soon embroiled in summer romances, riding herd on their charges and trying to figure out what makes Tiffin tick. Tiffin makes no attempt to follow rules, she is found pushing the head of the camp pet chipmunk under water, she will not participate in camp rituals, she won’t take her turn at K.P., leaves her cabin during rest period, she won’t play basket ball, she wanders away from the group and terrifies a small child, she casts blank stares and offers a cold attitude to everyone, and, she vandalizes one of the cabins. El’s happy summer filled with lighthearted fun spirals into a nightmare.

The worst part of the summer El realizes after she returns home and begins writing in the journal her mother gave to her; is the fact that while she is not responsible for Tiffin’s actions, she did not befriend this disagreeable, cheerless girl who was willing to do nearly anything to gain the notice of parents who appear to be too busy to notice the desires of their child.

On the pages of Peace I Ask of Thee Oh River Lyda Phillips has proven her resourcefulness as a writer. Phillips has produced a novel acclaimed first place winner of the 2006 Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Books awards for Children’s Fiction.

Writer Phillips’ command of the English language carries this easy to read, well-told tale in a manner calculated to keep the reader turning the page. This is not a fun storybook about teens coming of age amidst the raucousness of summer camp. It is a compelling read sure to cause the reader to take a moment to reflect how they might have handled Tiffin and her self destructive manner.

The lack of empathy exhibited by campers and counselors alike is disconcerting.

Peace I Ask of Thee Oh River lends itself to discussion with high school aged readers as to how they might face having to deal with a person having psychological problems. The book is a quick easy read, which can be used to help upper elementary and teen students gain a better perceptive as regards the quandary and conduct of others through this a narrative vehicle.

From the camp coordinator who was too willing to not see what was happening, to the young adult counselors who did not want to deal with, nor have the training or experience to deal, with a desperately lonely, in need child to the campers who might have shown more empathy had the adults taken the lead, to the child herself; each character is developed into a full fledged, warts and all, very convincing individual.

The clueless denial of the camp director was particularly unsettling to read because she was a mature woman who should have known better, the self absorbed behavior of the teenaged counselors as well as the matter-of-fact portrayal of disenchanted campers was presented in reasonable fashion.

The disturbed little girl was particularly hard for me to read about; for me a teacher, and a parent, children with problems are the ones most in need of serenity, compassion and acceptance. She was very unlikeable, was very needy and received little that she yearned for.

Thought provoking read, happy to recommend.