This isn't what camp's supposed to be.
Be Prepared is a Slice of Life Comic Book by Vera Brosgol, and a fictionalized account of what happened to Brosgol when she went to Russian culture summer camp as a child.
Every year, Vera and her brother Phillip have always been the only kids in their neighbourhood to never go to camp for the summer. After a disastrous ninth birthday party where she doesn't fit in with her more American friends, Vera gets word about the Organization of Russian Razvedchiki in America (ORRA in Russian for short and based on Organization of Russian Young Pathfinders
), a Russian-culture scouting summer camp. Vera begs her mother to send her there, both so she can be with people of her own culture and so she can go to camp like American kids do. Her mother agrees and pays to send her there for two weeks—along with her brother Phillip (much to his chagrin).
Soon after she arrives, Vera discovers that the camp isn't quite as much fun as she had expected. The outdoor bathrooms are disgusting, she's expected to speak in Russian as much as possible, the other kids in her group are older than her and quite nasty to boot, and church—Russian Orthodox—is held outside, rain or shine. Now all Vera wants is to get through the two weeks so she can go back home.
The graphic novel was released on April 24th, 2018. Has nothing to do with a lion or a king.
Be Prepared contains examples of:
- The '90s: The book is set during the mid to late 1990s.
- A-Cup Angst: Nine-going-on-ten year old Vera (the youngest in her age group) is made to feel shame by the older girls in her tent, the Sashas, when she's changing clothes the first time and they snottily point out she doesn't wear a bra.
- Adoring the Pests: Vera starts feeding wild chipmunks outside her tent, considering them cute. For this she ends up getting bitten badly on one finger and fears she has rabies until her new friend Kira informs her that rodents rarely carry it.
- Always Need What You Gave Up: Vera throws away her Russian camp songbook before she gets to camp, unsure of why she needs it or what it's for (as she can't read Russian as well as she can speak it). Cue her first night at the campfire, where she doesn't have her book to sing along and has to mouth the words.
- Autobiography: The comic details author Vera Brosgol's mostly-miserable time at an all-Russian summer camp, with some embellishments.
- Bait-and-Switch: A very mild one. Vera, after she's stuck at summer camp two more weeks, decides she's going to study for the Third Rank badge test with the belief that the badge will prove she "conquered" camp. This is followed by a long montage of her cramming. Until she finds fellow camper Kira's lost guinea pig, and makes friends with her. She instead then trains to win the last game of Capture the Flag—and skips taking the test altogether, instead taking some apples and eating them with Kira by the river during the test time.
- Bathroom Stall Graffiti: The "Hollywood" is covered in carvings from previous campers. Many of them are in Russian.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- After hearing about a Russian-culture summer camp and wanting to attend camp like the other kids she goes to school with, Vera begs her mother to let her go, citing that their church will pay half of what it costs. She starts to regret it very soon and wants to go home.
- Vera, after her four weeks at camp, says she doesn't want to go back next year and her brother agrees. Her mother says they don't have to. Because they're moving to London, England.
- Big Fun: Grusha, the counselor for the younger boys at camp (the volchata, or wolf cubs), is a big fuzzy man who approaches Phillip, gives him a cookie, and says the other boys are off catching frogs and he should come along before there's no good ones left. It works, and Phillip runs off happily with him.
- Big "NO!":
- Phillip shouts one when his mother agrees with Vera to send them both to camp.
- Vera lets one out upon hearing she'll be staying at camp two more weeks.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- Fittingly, the services at the Russian Orthodox church are in Russian. Vera is reciting the Lord's Prayer and gets grabbed and scolded by a elderly woman for fidgeting during it.
- The first song the scouts sing at camp, "Be Prepared", drops the title of the book though it's all sang in Russian. It's a song about how scouts, as Russian expats, should be ready to defend Russia. (Vera is not prepared as she doesn't have her songbook to sing along, having thrown it away—the cover of the book says "Songs," but she has the reading skills of a five year old in Russian.)
- The outdoor bathrooms — called Hollywoods — have Bathroom Stall Graffiti written in Russian.
- Birthday Party Goes Wrong: Vera plans for her ninth birthday party in August (after everyone else gets back from camp), and wants it to be like her friend Sarah's slumber party complete with the things she thinks make a successful party: stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut, good gift bags, and a Carvel ice cream cake. But her single divorced mother can't afford those kinds of things. She substitutes with regular pizza and a medovik torte (a Russian layered honey cake), with both items discounted gifts from members of their church. (Vera does try to put together nice gift bags). Vera is unhappy at things being so Russian and tries to make the best of it—including offering to serve kvass (a Russian rye bread carbonated beverage)—but her very American friends are visibly uncomfortable with the cultural differences and staying overnight in her small apartment, where they all have to stay in the room she normally shares with her younger brother (who is sleeping in the bedroom with their mother and younger sister Masha). The other girls call their parents in the middle of the night to go home early without telling Vera, leaving the gift bags behind. While Sarah is made to apologize by her mother, Vera is very hurt and blames herself, deciding she can't fit in with the American kids because she's too poor and too Russian.
- Boring Religious Service: Vera doesn't quite get the Russian Orthodox church liturgies or what she's saying when she recites in church (and once gets caught fidgeting and reprimanded by an elderly woman next to her). She's especially annoyed at outdoor church service at camp, which is held rain or shine—and the first couple of times are rain. But she does love the icons of the church, and has an image of the saint she's named for above her bed at home.
- Brick Joke: Vera, when she's upset at the other older girls teasing her for drawing Alexei and claiming she has a crush on him, angrily throws her half-drawn sketch into the Hollywood. Later, when the girls' side wins at Capture the Flag and she makes the boys all check the depths of them with sticks, Alexei stabs his stick down and finds the discarded image.
- Capture the Flag: The camp holds the game once a week, between the boys and girls, called napadenya or "attack". Whichever side wins gets to decide a punishment for the losing side.
- Commonality Connection: Invoked. Vera wants to go to ORRA because she thinks it'll be easier to make friends with and relate to other Russian-American kids. In reality, it's nowhere near that simple.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Four of these happen over the course of the comic as a result of napadenya (Capture the Flag), with the winner picking what everyone on the other side does.
- The boys' side win the first time, and make the girls eat their dinner with their hands tied together.
- The second time the boys again beat the girls, the girls are made to serve the boys their dinner like maids, thanks to Big Jerk on Campus Alexei.
- The third time the boys win, the girls are made to wash the boys' dirty, smelly laundry at the creek by hand. It's so nasty that one girl is shown throwing up.
- The girls win the final game, thanks to Vera—and Vera decides to make the boys check the depth of every "Hollywood" (the euphemism for the outdoor non-flush toilets) with sticks and record the measurement. All of them, so there's an average.
- Culture Clash: Happens at Vera's ninth birthday. Rather than having all the "trappings" of an American birthday party, her mother gets a Russian style cake, kvass, and plain pizza from a local pizza shop. The girls are visibly discomforted from the start because of these things—including that Vera's apartment is small, including her bedroom she shares with her brother—and end up leaving early in the middle of the night not even taking their gift bags. Vera decides the problem was that her party was both too poor and too Russian, and she can't fit in with the American kids.
- Disappeared Dad: Vera's father divorced her mother a few years ago—recent enough that she has a toddler sister. He doesn't contact them or send money, and she hasn't seen him in several years.
- Don't Try This at Home: Vera gets bit by a chipmunk and doesn't tell anyone, terrified that she has rabies. Later, hre new friend Kira tells her that it's actually very unlikely since rodents don't usually carry rabies, and the bite didn't break the skin—but Vera should still tell the nurse, just in case. Vera says she will, but doesn't. This has a footnote from adult Vera who stresses this was a very dumb thing to do and that if you get bit by a wild animal, seek medical attention. You should see a doctor and not merely rely on another kid.
- Dramatization: While most of the story is based on Vera Brosgol's real life experience at Russian camp, some things are simplified or jazzed up for a good story's sake. The author's notes at the end state that the summer is actually based on two miserable summers Vera spent at ORRA. She did speak to a former counselor and her siblings about camp, and sneak back to the camp during an open house to sketch the layout. The last pages show a picture of her at camp and the letter she wrote to her mom. While she did wander off in the woods at night by herself and hear a moose, she never actually saw it—but admits the part where she got bit by a chipmunk and made the not very smart choice to not tell an adult about it was true, though.
- The Dreaded Toilet Duty:
- Big Jerk on Campus Alexei is a snot on the overnight camping trip to the point the counselors make him cover up the latrine.
- When Vera helps the girls win at Capture the Flag, she decides to make all the boys check the depths of the outdoor non-flushing toilets—the "Hollywood"—with sticks.
- Eye Take: Vera's response to hearing her mother got a new job—in London—is to stare forward with a shocked face and wide eyes.
- Fat Camp: One of the girls at Sarah's birthday party complains that she's being sent to fat camp in the Poconos.
- Foreshadowing:
- Vera throws away a book she doesn't know the use of before she gets to camp, and is caught out not having the songbook to sing along with the first night of camp. The cover of the book says "Songs" in Russian, and she speaks it much better than she reads or writes it. This is later seen when she's asked to read Russian aloud and stumbles so bad someone else is asked to read instead. She's accused of faking her reading skills.
- Alexei, being nasty on the overnight camping trip, is made to cover the outdoor latrine that was dug. Later, all the boys are made to check the depths of the "Hollywood" toilets with sticks, including him, when Vera wins Capture the Flag for the girls' side the last day of camp.
- Gainax Ending: The last scene has Vera's mother revealing she got a new job—and the family is moving to London. Vera stares off into the distance. End story!
- Go to the Euphemism: The outdoor, non-flushing outhouses used at camp are called the "Hollywood".
- Growing Up Sucks: Vera feels this in part at camp—at nine going on ten, she's grouped with the 10-14 year olds and the youngest in her section, and the older girls she camps with are rude to her. She later sees the younger campers—the Squirrels—and they're playing games and braiding hair, and she wishes she was still eight.
- Hope Spot: The intended two weeks at camp pass and Vera is looking forward to heading home, especially because she's just been bitten by a wild chipmunk and the older girls won't speak to her anymore after she both lost them their Secret Snack Stash and Capture the Flag (by being caught in the toilet with it). However, her mother informs Vera that she's got an interview for a job that might work out, and it requires her to be out of town for a few days—and since she can't afford a babysitter for her and her brother, she needs to have them stay at camp two more weeks, which is the cheaper option. Cue a loud "NO!" from Vera.
- Irony: Vera desperately wants to go to summer camp, while her brother Phillip just wants to stay home. When they get there, Vera has a miserable time to start while Phillip takes to it immediately. Near the end, things improve for Vera, and Phillip—who had a decent time—admits that one of the boys, Anton, was pretty nasty to him too and he'd rather not go back.
- Karmic Jackpot: Gregor, one of the quieter older boys at camp, is made fun of by everyone for losing his shoe to a sinkhole during their twelve-mile hike (and unable to turn around for a new one) and then getting stung by wasps—with one knot in the middle of his forehead, getting him the Embarrassing Nickname Tit-head. However, his asthma means he's the only one exempt from the Cool and Unusual Punishment Vera gives the boys after she wins at Capture the Flag—checking the depths of all the outdoor toilets. (In her author's notes, the real Vera admits this is one aspect that she embellished for the narrative; the real Gregor never got any justice. She notes that fiction is considerably more fair than real life.)
- Leave Me Alone!: Vera yells that she doesn't need anyone at her camp counselor Natasha after being shunned by the older kids, saying she's going home soon and she won't need to see any of the mean kids that have been picking on her ever again. She ends up at camp for two more weeks, and during that time makes a friend, showing this was just a boast after feeling friendless yet again.
- Lonely Among People:
- Vera is made to feel left out twice at Sarah's birthday party: first when she doesn't have an American Doll to play with the other girls, and again when they're in their themed sleeping bags in a circle together while she lays over to the side under a patched blanket, left out of the night whispers.
- Vera gets this again at camp when her sneaking of candy from the Secret Snack Stash the other girls keep in their tent gets them caught and all the sweets confiscated; the older girls completely shun her.
- Misery Builds Character: During outdoor church service in the rain (after Vera's been informed she'll be at camp two more weeks she didn't plan for) Vera compares her struggles to her namesake Saint Vera (who was tortured and beheaded in front of her mother), and historic Russian troubles: the invasions from Mongols and Vikings, famines in the 17th century, and work camps of the 20th century in which her own great-grandmother died. She (picturing herself in each historic event) determines that Russians are bred for suffering and prays that she doesn't die of rabies before biting the Sashas first.
- Men Can't Keep House: Seen twice at camp. First when the girls are made to wash the boys' dirty and sweaty laundry, it's so disgusting with body and bathroom stains that one girl ends up throwing up while doing it. Secondly, when Vera chooses to go through the boys' tent during Capture the Flag, they have clothing and items scattered everywhere, including underwear on the floor.
- Nature Tinkling:
- Vera does the pooping variety after going to the "Hollywood" (outdoor non-flush toilet) the first time and while doing her business looks up to see the ceiling covered in spiders, with one coming down towards her. She takes off running and finishes outside behind a tree, doing that for the rest of camp as much as possible for a long time (when she can't attend the toilet at the nearby lake where they do full hair washing).
- Vera wanders into the boys' side of camp and decides to check on her younger brother Phil. She finds him peeing outside off the top of a rock with the other boys.
- Nervous Wreck: Vera's counselor Natasha when she's first met. She has a frazzled look on her face and barely notices Vera when she arrives and reluctantly helps her carry things away, then drops Vera's bag on the ground and says she has to go find another camper who ran off when she was told she had to send her pet guinea pig back with her parents. She's in contrast to Phil's more enthusiastic counselor Grusha. She calms down later—her first day was the more stressful day.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted; both Vera's tent mates are named Sasha.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Vera, upset that she has to stay at camp for two more weeks, pleads with her Struggling Single Mother to take her home. After pleading to go home and go with her mom, she yells in anger that she can go stay with her dad. Her mom gets a hurt, wounded look, and Vera immediately regrets what she said seeing as her dad is out of the picture. She meekly says she can endure two more weeks.
- Ordered Apology: Sarah is made by her mother to come apologize for how she acted at Vera's party, including leaving early with the others. Vera is sure her mother made her do it.
- Secret Snack Stash: The other girls camping with Vera have forbidden candy in their tent and initially share it with Vera. However, once she gets them caught it gets confiscated and everyone's tents get searched since there's no candy or sweets allowed.
- Shout-Out:
- The start of the book has Vera go to the birthday party of her friend Sarah Hoffman, who is well off enough to have an American Girl doll (which are called "American Doll"). Most of her birthday presents are various items from the collection for her doll, "Complicity". Later her and the other girls are playing with their dolls together—minus Vera, who doesn't have a doll and feels left out. She tries to claim she has one, but makes up having one that doesn't exist. Sarah hands her an old Barbie to play with, which Vera is not pleased to have. Later at her own party, one of the girls gifts Vera something for her alleged American Doll as a subtle insult.
- The two Sashas compare Alexei 's looks to Leonardo DiCaprio.
- Slice of Life: The comic mostly focuses on Vera's time at ORRA, a Russian-focused summer camp.
- Social Circle Filler: Sarah and the other girls at her birthday party—who later attend Vera's much less fancy one—disappear after they leave by being picked up in the night. Sarah appears in silhouette just long enough to apologize for her actions—when her mother makes her—and then drops out of the story. It's not like Vera was part of their group anyways.
- Spiders Are Scary: After her first night in camp, Vera goes to the "Hollywood" (outdoor non-flushing toilet) to poop, and while doing her business looks up to see the ceiling covered in spiders, with one coming down towards her. She takes off running and finishes her business outside.
- Struggling Single Mother: Vera's mother is a single parent raising three children after her husband divorced her. Given the age of the youngest child Masha who is still a toddler, it doesn't appear to have been very long ago. The family is poor and lives in a two-bedroom apartment above someone else's place, and Vera can't afford the many nice things her American classmates can. Her mother graduates from her accounting class and gets a good job by the end of the summer. It's in London, so they're moving.
- Summer Campy: Vera's hopes for a summer camp experience like her American friends are dashed when she arrives. The camp is a lot more rustic than she hoped, complete with outdoor toilets, camping in actual tents (which means no sweets, since wild animals could get to them), no running water (bathing, including hair washing, is done in a lake fully dressed every other day while morning wash-up is done in the river) and lots of wilderness. She immediately wants to go home, but has to endure two weeks—and then two more, when her mom has to keep them there longer.
- Title Drop: The first song sung at the camp is "Be Prepared"—a song about Russian disapora being prepared to support Russia.
- Translation Convention: The camp heavily pushes for everyone to speak Russian as much as possible. This is written in English and marked with <single brackets> around Russian speech.
- Tropey, Come Home: One of the girls at camp slightly younger than Vera, Kira, lost her pet guinea pig Malchik after bringing him there (and running off when she was told she'd have to send him home with her parents and losing him in the woods). She spends her time at camp crying. Vera finds the lost pet with a week or so left and returns it to Kira, and they become friends.
- Underwear Flag: Blonde-Sasha's underwear get run up the flagpole at camp—while she's on her period, so they have stains. Brunette-Sasha is implied to have done it in revenge after Blonde-Sasha is found making out with Alexei and she learns about it, and the two fight until the last day of camp over it, when they make up off screen while Vera's packing.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: Both Phil and Vera agree they do not need to go back to camp again next year. They won't, because they're moving to England.
- With Friends Like These...: Vera makes friends with plenty of the older girls at the camp by showing off her artistic skills and drawing the boys they like and them—and also by later giving them a whole bag of Skittles her mom gave her. Natasha tells Vera she shouldn't make friends in such a manner—specifically, that friends you "buy" aren't as good as friends made for free. True to Natasha's word, when Vera accidentally reveals the contraband secret candy stash in her tent by eating some of the Skittles she gave away the older girls, including her tent mates, all turn their backs on her and start to bully her mercilessly for getting them in trouble.
