Camp X

Anne Hutchings, a former elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Durham Board of Education, is an educational consultant.

Eric Walters has become well known for his fast-paced, exciting
page-turners. Camp X is no exception. This novel, which deals with the
real training facility for undercover agents during World War II, will
certainly appeal to junior- and intermediate-grade students, especially
boys.

George, not quite 12, and Jack, 14, have recently moved to Whitby.
Their father is serving with the Allied troops in Africa and their
mother, unable to run the family farm by herself, has a job with D.I.L.
(Defense Industries Limited, located in what is now Ajax), a munitions
factory. George and Jack spend much of their summer vacation exploring
and playing Allies and Nazis.

On one such foray, they stumble into a restricted area patrolled by
soldiers with real guns. Although they are escorted home and warned to
stay away, their curiosity gets the better of them. They return several
times and are mystified by the peculiar happenings and inhabitants of
the camp. They are again captured and forced to sign an oath of secrecy
under the Official Secrets Act. With their imaginations working
overtime, George and Jack begin to suspect that there are spies and
Nazis all around them. And in this they are not far wrong—there is a
plot to attack the German prisoner-of-war camp in Bowmanville as well as
D.I.L. But these are just diversions. The real target is Camp X, and
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who is believed to be there.

As the tale unfolds, George and Jack narrowly escape being killed
themselves. Fortunately (and predictably) they survive and are hailed as
heroes for helping foil and capture the German agents.

In addition to his cracking good story, Walters includes a good deal of
information about life during the war, such as rationing and food
shortages, war saving stamps, “zombies” (anyone who did not enlist),
censorship of the press, distrust of anything or anyone of German
origin, and the development of plastique explosives. In a brief
author’s note, he explains that his character, Little Bill, is
patterned after Sir William Stephenson (also known as “Intrepid” or
“The Quiet Canadian”), the real-life director of Camp X.

Valuable as a supplement to Canadian history collections, the novel
could also be used to stimulate further research about Stephenson and
other wartime heroes or the historical snippets Walters includes. In
Ontario’s Durham and Clarington regions, it could be used as a
resource for the study of local history and should be required reading
for all junior-grade students, especially those living in Whitby, Ajax,
and Bowmanville. Highly recommended.