What do you think?
Rate this book
Compass
The teacher is missing, there isn’t enough food, it’s getting dark and no one mentioned that the toilets out here are nothing but holes in the ground.
For a small group of students, it seems their grade seven camp couldn’t get much worse, that is until a stranger appears.
Compass is a comedy with a sting in its tail, which asks how far we’ll go to hold on to what we think we deserve. If we are barely managing to take care of ourselves, how do we treat an outsider? Is our moral compass set in stone, or can we get lost?
For a small group of students, it seems their grade seven camp couldn’t get much worse, that is until a stranger appears.
Compass is a comedy with a sting in its tail, which asks how far we’ll go to hold on to what we think we deserve. If we are barely managing to take care of ourselves, how do we treat an outsider? Is our moral compass set in stone, or can we get lost?
Unknown Binding
7 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2023
Made for middle grade, it's a very quick read. 60ish pages? Similar to the Lord of the Flies, a dozen or so kids are marooned in nature without any adult oversight. Thankfully, this batch of kids includes girls--one of whom is reading Lord of the Flies:
"It's about a bunch of kids like us, alone in the middle of nowhere."
"Do they have fun?"
"No. Not really."
Truly. After experiencing the various of highs and lows that come with youth camping (campfire horror stories, eating marshmallows until ya wanna puke, fighting about who the leader should be, etc) their camp is set upon by a stranger. The stranger doesn't speak and is desperate for food. The loudest of the alphas is firm about capturing the stranger and denying their humanity--referring to him as an "it". Others, meanwhile, subvert the group to help him.
I love a good morality tale. Compass feels like an allegory for the phobia of immigrants. "If we are barely managing to take care of ourselves, how do we treat an outsider? Is our moral compass set in stone, or can we get lost?"
I met the author at the Singapore Writers Festival a couple of months ago. She was smart, engaging, and funny. I hunted down her book and am so glad I did.
"It's about a bunch of kids like us, alone in the middle of nowhere."
"Do they have fun?"
"No. Not really."
Truly. After experiencing the various of highs and lows that come with youth camping (campfire horror stories, eating marshmallows until ya wanna puke, fighting about who the leader should be, etc) their camp is set upon by a stranger. The stranger doesn't speak and is desperate for food. The loudest of the alphas is firm about capturing the stranger and denying their humanity--referring to him as an "it". Others, meanwhile, subvert the group to help him.
I love a good morality tale. Compass feels like an allegory for the phobia of immigrants. "If we are barely managing to take care of ourselves, how do we treat an outsider? Is our moral compass set in stone, or can we get lost?"
I met the author at the Singapore Writers Festival a couple of months ago. She was smart, engaging, and funny. I hunted down her book and am so glad I did.
March 11, 2020
This is the best play ever.
January 10, 2023
Love it!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews