The Dinosaur That Followed Me Home

Camp Haunted Hills #3

by Bruce Coville

Stuart looks forward to another adventurous summer at Camp Haunted Hills, but he gets more than he bargained for when he and his friends inadvertently travel back to the time of the dinosaurs

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Fiction, Ghosts, Middle Grade

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Bruce Coville was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1950. His family lived in farm territory, about twenty miles north of Syracuse. Bruce grew up around the corner from his grandparents' dairy farm, where he spent a great deal of time as a child, dodging cows and chores to the best of his ability. As a young reader he loved Mary Poppins and Dr. Dolittle, and still has fond memories of rising ahead of the rest of his family so he could huddle in a chair and read THE VOYAGES OF DR. DOLITTLE. He also read lots of things that people consider junk (Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and zillions of comic books). His only real regret is the time he spent watching television, when he could have been reading instead. (A mind is a terrible thing to waste!)

His first book, THE FOOLISH GIANT, was published in 1978. It was illustrated by his wife, Katherine, whom he had married in 1969. This was followed in 1979 by SARAH'S UNICORN, also illustrated by Katherine. After a long period of working separately, the Covilles began collaborating again with SPACE BRAT and GOBLINS IN THE CASTLE, both published in 1992.

Before getting published Bruce earned his living as a toymaker, a gravedigger, a cookware salesman, an assembly line worker, and finally as an elementary school teacher (second and fourth grades). He left teaching in 1981 to devote himself to becoming a full time writer - though it took another five years to achieve that goal!)

Bruce has published over 100 books, which have appeared in over a dozen countries around the world and sold more than sixteen million copies. Among his most popular titles are MY TEACHER IS AN ALIEN, INTO THE LAND OF THE UNICORNS, and THE MONSTER'S RING. In 2001 he founded Full Cast Audio, an audiobook company dedicated to creating unabridged, full cast recordings of the best in children's and young adult literature.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It’s time for the 3rd year of my summer camp book marathon thing. And for the last time we begin with a trip to Bruce Coville’s Camp Haunted Hills. These have proven to be fine, on the lesser end for him but not bad. You can see the linked reviews for details.

In the finale, it is next summer and Stuart Glassman is ready to head back to camp for another summer of adventure. This time, they’re making a dinosaur movie and have some neat animatronics for it. This one counselor (?) man starts up a prank war with Harry Housen and Robert the ghost wants to help out.

He’s able to use a time vortex, don’t ask, to bring Flash back to dinosaur times to scare him but the kids get caught up in it. Even when they get home, some dinosaurs accidently come back with them. Hence the title except camp isn’t home, it’s camp so not quite?

So this one is weird but I’d say it’s my favorite of the 3. The first fleshes out the camp more and has more movie stuff. But this felt more consistent and fun. Stuart still has a few random sexist bits but it’s quick this time. It does take a bit to get to the dinosaur times stuff and the 3rd gets pretty out there, kind of goes off the rails. And the ending is rather abrupt, I have questions.

Still, there’s a fair bit of fun had with the dinosaur idea. It can feel too quick, as it feels like events happen in a snap but it does make the book easy and quick to read. There’s some fun interactions here, even if Brenda gets less to do it seems. Robert starts getting called out more and even has a nice moment in the ending.

The ending may be abrupt, but it is oddly profound. It does feel sudden, like they just realized we never found out more about his death and all that and they randomly put in something like that. Maybe Bruce found out last minute this would be the last one, I don’t know.

It’s a quick and fun time, even if the whole time vortex idea is some odd lore. It’s a weird one that manages to be fun with less drawbacks than the others. As for the finale, it works well enough. These weren’t Bruce’s best, as they were more on the fine side but they’re still readable and have enough of that Coville charm.

Nothing too grand but they worked as ways to kick our camp marathons. And that’s about all I got really, this one was fairly simple. Overall, some fine stuff but we’re ready for hopefully bigger and better things.

Next time, the randomizer gives me a random one where the title doesn’t indicate the camp-ness so we’ll see where that goes. See ya then.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2018
"At the moment, I was too busy worrying that I was about to become the world's first hit-and-run triceratops driver."

"I don't like being responsible for the family dog, much less the fate of the world."

Memory Lane Trip #469 - hahaha, but seriously, I have been reading through a bunch of old books I used to read through when I was a kid.

This might have been my first introduction into a time travel tale. I've always loved reading science fiction, especially time travel, and I wonder if it all started because of a little book by Bruce Coville. Even though you, the reader, don't get to spend much time in the past in this story, it is definitely an integral part to the tale. These young campers get picked up by a time vortex, with the help from a friendly neighborhood ghost, and transported back to the time of the dinosaurs. On their way back to the future, they pick up a few extra travelers, three dinosaurs, and accidentally transport them back to their time period with them. The consequences of accidentally bringing back the dinosaurs is really what I would have focused on when I was a kid. I especially loved stories that dealt with what would happen if time travel existed and it was accidentally/purposely abused.

[Kristofer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a boy named Stuart that has been going to a camp named Camp Hunted Hills
and last time he was kidnaped by BigFoot, chased by Mummies and stalked by were wolfs but he still wants to go back to Camp Hunted Hills he mite think this one would be any different but he went any way and this to his friends and him found Dinosaurs and there were there people filming a movie there was one nice Dino named Bluto.

I liked this book because it has Dinosaurs i like Dinosaurs
and because there is a big adventure in it and i liked the ending to but i cant tell
you will just have to read the book and find out
and i like Author hes name is Bruce Coville.

I really liked the Dinosaurs because this book had really good detail and it has some facts about them to
like how sharp there teeth are and some different kind of Dinosaurs like a Meat Eater so a T-Rex
and a Plant Eater so a Long Neck a Pterodactyl is my favorite Dinosaur.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute story about Stuart and Brenda at Camp Haunted Hills. It's also about their ghost, Robert. Robert mistakenly transports them and a couple of other people back to dinosaur times; and when he tries to get them back to Camp, he brings three dinosaurs back by mistake. Now they have to get the dinosaurs back to their time before the whole world is messed up. Readling Level: 4.9

[Haystack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had totally forgotten about this book. I read it what seems like a thousand years ago when I was a kid in summer camp. I read it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I didn't know at the time that it was part of a series. Now I feel I have to go and track down the other books in the series and read them. Then I'll have to re-read this one. Oh the memories!

[Bhumika]

i want to raed