Yes, it is confusing, so I've decided to create this page to let readers know of the book order.
This is the publication date timeline:
Buddy Check: 2002
Super Counselors: 2003
Camp Expert (Abby's Camp Days: Volume 1): 2008
Favorite Camper (Abby's Camp Days: Volume 2): 2009
Cabin Secrets (Abby's Camp Days: Volume 3): 2010
Lost Swimmer Drill (Abby's Camp Days: Volume 4): 2011
The remaining 6 volumes of Abby's Camp Days will be out, one per year, starting in 2012.
Why is this confusing?
Because Super Counselors is a prequel to Buddy Check, and The Abby's Camp Days series is a spin-off of these first two books, beginning a year before Super Counselors.
A prequel is a book that an author physically writes and publishes after his or her first book but in which the plot of the novel actually takes place before the original. One of the most well-known examples of a prequel is Star Wars. The original trilogy is about the rebels fighting Darth Vader. The second trilogy is about how a man turned to the dark side and became the villain Darth Vader. Even though the second trilogy was made after the first, all the action happens before.
Super Counselors takes place two years before Buddy Check even though its publishing date is second. Some people have actually chosen to read them in reverse order of publication, as to not know anything that might happen, but others read them in the order they were written. I, personally, love prequels! It's fun to know how things work out and see how characters meet when you already know the relationships they have in the future.
A spin-off series is a book series that has its roots in an already-published book. It usually has some of the same characters as the original book but is separate in that it concentrates on different characters. Examples of this can be found in television. The show Happy Days had a couple of episodes in which two young women named Laverne and Shirley appeared. Later, Laverne and Shirley were spun-off into their own show. Happy Days centered on a high school boy named Richie, his friends, and family. Later, the show Joanie Loves Chachi went on the air as a spin-off, and that was about Richie's younger sister and her guy.
The Abby's Camp Days series is a spin-off series of Buddy Check and Super Counselors. It has many of the same characters involved, but shows camp life through the eyes of a camper rather than a counselor. It begins with Abby's first year at camp, which was the year before Super Counselors.
Therefore, my young reader friend was correct when he read the first three books I published and then commented, "Time keeps going backwards!"
Confused, yet?
For those of you who want to read the books in order of the Camp Spirit world "real time" rather than my backwards published date time, the order of the complete Camp Spirit storyline is as follows:
Year 1: Camp Expert (Abby Volume 1); Abby is age 9
Year 2: Favorite Camper (Abby Volume 2) AND Super Counselors; Abby is age 10 in both books, and Kate is age 16
Year 3: Abby Volume 3 (Cabin Secrets); Abby is age 11
Year 4: Abby Volume 4 (Lost Swimmer Drill) AND Buddy Check; Abby is age 12 and Kate is age 18
Year 5 and beyond: The rest of the Abby volumes; you finally get to see what happens after Buddy Check.
So technically, when you read Buddy Check you need to wait until Abby Volume 5 (scheduled release Spring/Summer 2012) for the story to go forward.
Hope this solves any confusion! If you've read one of the books from Year 2 or 4, consider reading the companion book. They are about the same summer, but from different points of view.