Mr. Star broke the news gently. "Well, 4B," he said, "it appears we're going to do it."

It was the talk of last year''s fourth, especially the part about the catfish between the principal''s sheets. It is the good-behavior reward for this year's fourth grade. It is Outdoor Education: three days at Camp Trotter in Wisconsin.

From where Hobie Hanson sits -- at Central School in Stockton, Illinois -- it is bad news. Three days also means two nights, two nights far from home. The thought brings wooly-worms to his stomach and floods his head with what-ifs. As things turn out, however, Outdoor Education lives up to its name, and in ways that neither Hobie nor his friends expect.

The class, and sub, that kept readers breathless in Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub are back for another rousing adventure, filled with the sights, sounds, tastes, and, yes, smells familiar to veteran campers everywhere.