Skip to footer

'Divergent' summer camp will be held in Illinois

Illinois bookstore Anderson's Bookshops is hosting three five-day sessions of a 'Divergent' camp this summer. Each day will focus on a different faction from author Veronica Roth's book series.

|
Jaap Buitendijk/Summit Entertainment/AP
'Divergent' stars Shailene Woodley (l.) and Theo James (r.).
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Fans of the “Divergent” series by Veronica Roth can read the books and immerse themselves in Roth’s world via the new film adaptation of the first book in the series. And now Illinois devotees will have the chance to live in Roth’s world (the more benign aspects of it, anyway).

Anderson’s Bookshops, which is based in Naperville, Ill., has created a five-day camp session for “Divergent” fans that will be held this summer at a museum near the store called Naper Settlement. Three of the five-day sessions will be held in June, July, and August, respectively.

During the camp, which is aimed at tweens and teens, according to Publishers Weekly, campers will participate in activities based on the factions in Roth’s books. For example, one day will highlight the Abnegation faction, members of which are known for their selflessness in “Divergent,” and campers will compile food packages to send to Africa. On a day centering on the Erudite faction, whose members are known for their intelligence, campers will work on brain teasers. The day centering on the Candor faction will have local politicians tell campers the importance of morality and Amity Day will find them planting vegetables. On the day focusing on the Dauntless faction, the group to which “Divergent” heroine Tris belongs, campers will learn mixed martial arts.

Campers will also discuss other dystopian novels like the “In the After” series by Demitria Lunetta and the “Testing” books by Joelle Charbonneau, said Anderson’s Bookshops co-owner Becky Anderson, who told PW that Charbonneau and Lunetta will hopefully stop by the camp and that Roth herself might even make an appearance (no definite answer from the author yet, though).

Anderson said she got the idea for the sessions after hearing about the camps sponsored by the indie bookstore BookPeople, which is based in Austin, Texas. The store has hosted a camp based on Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson” series for the past seven years, in addition to hosting a camp centered around the “Ranger’s Apprentice” books by John Flanagan for the past four.

As for the camp based on Roth's books, “by the time you’re done with the week, you’re definitely Divergent,” Anderson said, referencing the status in which residents of Roth’s world belong to more than one faction. “You’ll learn something in the process and have a great time.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Divergent' summer camp will be held in Illinois
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0402/Divergent-summer-camp-will-be-held-in-Illinois
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe