Every year, we get new camp counselors at Camp Penguin to help run the program. As a way to introduce them to you campers, we like to do a few ice breaker activities!
We asked camp counselor Diane Magras today to tell us 2 Truths and 1 Lie. Can you guess which one was the false statement?
- Unlike Drest, the hero of The Mad Wolf’s Daughter, I’m not all that good with seaside cliffs. I love wandering atop them, or below them, but climbing them is quite beyond my talents. And when I was young, I fell from a seaside cliff. I plunged into the waves, struck a dragon’s tooth (sharp rock), and yet somehow, miraculously, lived. Though that accident left a scar between my eyes that has lingered to this day and probably will stay there for the rest of my life.
- Like Drest, I love to run. I’ve practiced running in every place I’ve lived: Maine, Vermont, and the Borders, Scotland. When I was Drest’s age, I used to challenge myself to the toughest courses, up the mountain trails in Acadia National Park (the Beehive Trail was my favorite). As an adult, I’ve run nearly as hard up Killington Peak in Vermont’s Green Mountains and over Dun Rig in the Tweedsmuir Hills in the Scottish Borders. Each time I return to my beloved Scotland, a hill run is always in my plans.
- Like Drest, I grew up playing with swords and always wanted a real sword of my own. Imagine my delight when one day, rummaging in my basement, I discovered a box with a sword. This sword wasn’t sharp, but it was long, and it sent a feeling of majesty and power through my arm when I held it. I taught myself a few moves, though I could take no lessons; there was no one around who could teach me. Eventually, this sword made its way to a perch on two nails on the bedroom wall of my childhood home.
On the first night of camp, everyone is sitting around the camp fire playing Would You Rather? Here’s how our camp counselor Diane Magras responded:
Be stuck in a comic book or in a Where’s Waldo book?
Please stick me in a comic book, ideally one drawn in the style of medieval marginalia (the little pictures that scribes drew on the sides of manuscripts). Then I can joust with rabbit knights riding snails!
Choose to live underwater or on land your entire life?
I could live on the land near the water, couldn’t I? I’d pick that. I love the sea and ponds and streams, but I couldn’t live without the woods.
Be able to predict the future or have a talking ax?
It would be horrible to predict the future, and yet not be able to do anything about the awful things that I might see! So I’d go with the talking ax. I’d bet she’d have amazing stories. And I’d tell her about the battleaxes that make appearances in my books!
Live in a cardboard box or be always wear a costume?
This choice is easy, given that I used to wear a costume to high school almost every day! For today, I’d pick a medieval costume: hose, under tunic, kirtle (a long gown or outer tunic), with a belt and dagger, please. Oh, and a veil. Must be proper about things.
Ability to grow to a giant or shrink to a dwarf size?
If I could grow to be utterly enormous, as tall as a house, I’d feel as if I were always on the battlements of a castle. I might take on that size in places where a castle once stood and stand among the ruins looking over the land, imagining the fortress beneath my feet.
The Mad Wolf’s Daughter
By Diane Magras
304 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Puffin Books
ISBN 9780735229280
A Scottish medieval adventure about the youngest in a war-band who must free her family from a castle prison after knights attack her home–with all the excitement of Ranger’s Apprentice and perfect for fans of heroines like Alanna from The Song of the Lioness series.