Willa’s Wilderness Campout
| Author | Valerie Tripp |
| Illustrator | Thu Thai |
| Originally Published | © 2018 American Girl |
| ISBN | 9781683370871 |
Table of Contents
Campout Tonight!
Tonight is the night that the WellieWishers were planning to do a campout. They were going to sleep under the stars in Willa’s Aunt Miranda’s backyard. Willa had come up with the idea based on a book she read by Wilderness Wendy. In anticipation, Emerson sings a song to the tune of “Yankee Doodle”:
WellieWishers,
Should hooray!
We’ll surely have a ball!
Because tonight we’re camping out,
The most fun fun of all.
Willa gleefully says Wilderness Wendy believes the most fun part of camping is being surrounded by nature. And Willa is excited to try that out. Kendall says her favorite part is putting up the tent, like building a sweet house. Emerson says her favorite part is singing songs, telling stories, and playing games. Camille says she’s most excited to be able to stare up at the beautiful sky.
But there’s one WellieWisher missing. Just then, they see Ashlyn hobbling toward them carrying a bunch of camping equipment. She tells them the key to a successful camping trip is—
Willa interrupts her and states it’s getting away from civilization and living as simply and naturally as animals do.
Ashlyn shakes her head. It’s preparation. And she pulls out a long list of things to bring. She says they’ll need to be prepared with water, shelter, and food. Willa disagrees, stating animals live in the wilderness, and they don’t need any of that stuff.
Emerson is confused. She thinks the whole point of the campout is to have fun. Ashlyn offers to be in charge of collecting everything they need. But Kendall says it wouldn’t be fair for Ashlyn to have to do everything.
So Ashlyn carefully tears her list into five parts, and hands one to each of the girls. As they leave, Ashlyn reminds them to pick up all the items from their list.