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Great Books About Summer Camp

Fiction:

Agnes Parker…Happy Camper?
by Kathleen O’Dell
At Science camp for the summer, Agnes is matched with ill-tempered bunkmate Nyssa, while Agnes’ friend Prejean ends up in another cabin…and on the other side of a camp rivalry. Soon a series of escalating pranks begins. Will the two friends make up, or are they doomed to be camp enemies?

The Great Summer Camp Catastrophe by Jean Van Leeuwen
Three mice living in Macy’s department store accidentally arrive at a Vermont summer camp, where they have fun and fantastic adventures including fleeing from an owl, matching wits with a dog, and learning to water-ski. Can they stop having fun long enough to return home to New York?

Holes
by Louis Sachar
Wrongly accused of theft, perpetually unlucky Stanley Yelnats is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center where there is no lake…only dozens of kids digging holes in the dirt. Can Stanley survive the hot sun, the cruel staff, and his seemingly crazy fellow campers to figure out what all this digging is about?

Jenna’s Dilemma (Camp Confidential)
by Melissa J. Morgan
Jenna Bloom has been doing the whole camp thing for three years, but her identity as a practical joker is starting to wear thin. Can she figure herself -- and her relationship with her camper siblings -- out?

Letters from Camp
by Kate Klise
The Harmony Family Singers, who run Camp Happy Harmony, turn quarrelling brothers and sisters into happy sibs. But as a group of young campers soon discover, these singers are hiding a few secrets of their own.

Mary by Myself
by Jane Denitz Smith
After her baby sister dies, troubled Mary heads off to summer camp, where she and spooky new friend Laura tease caring, overweight Celeste. Will Mary learn to deal with her feelings and understand what it means to be a friend?

Summer Camp, Ready or Not!
by Sandra Belton
In the summer after fifth grade, friends Ernestine and Amanda go to two separate camps. Ernestine deals with problems of self-esteem while Amanda tries to cope with the fact that her parents are splitting up. How will their camp experiences turn out?

Non-Fiction:

Lights Out!: Kids Talk About Summer Camp
by Eric Arnold, Jeff Loeb
The editors of this book spent a summer interviewing kids at camps in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The campers' observations, broken down into such categories as "Why I Went to Camp," "Camp Food" and "Parents Day," give readers a great peek into real-life camp experiences.

Sleepaway: The Girls of Summer and the Camps They Love
by Laurie Susan Kahn
This scrapbook-style book collects a hundred years of camp lore, plus vintage photographs, letters, songs, badges, postcards, and autographed pillowcases.