Gather round the campfire with these stories about sleepaway summer camps, from today and yesterday.
Calonita, Jen. Summer State of Mind. 2014.
Spoiled, yet lovable fifteen-year-old Harper McCallister is sent to sleep-away camp where she is an outcast at first but eventually finds a way to make her mark, gaining new perspectives on friendship and life in general.
Dominy, Amy Fellner. OyMG. 2011.
Ellie will do almost anything to win a scholarship to the best speech school in the country, but must decide if she is willing to hide her Jewish heritage while at a Phoenix, Arizona, summer camp that could help her reach her goal.
Edwardson, Ake. Samurai Summer. 2013.
A boy sent to a camp for unwanted children adopts the samurai lifestyle in order to protect himself and his friends from the sadistic camp overseer, Matron, and her adult son who is stalking one of the female campers.
Kim, Susan. Brain Camp. 2010.
Lucas and Jenna are chosen to attend a camp that promises to turn delinquents into high achieving students, but when they arrive, they realize that the camp is not what it seems. Deliciously creepy.
LaMarche, Una. Five Summers. 2013.
Reuniting at a camp where they spent five inseparable summers together, best friends Emma, Skylar, Johanna and Maddie explore the shared bond that helped them get through their toughest school challenges and on which they rely when forced to confront painful problems.
Lupica, Mike. Summer Ball. 2008, 2007.
Thirteen-year-old Danny must prove himself all over again for a disapproving coach and against new rivals at a summer basketball camp. Sequel to Travel Team.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Nightmare. 2003.
Emily is sent to Camp Excel, a camp for underachievers, where she discovers a murderer on the staff who might provide an explanation for her recurring nightmares.
Nolan, Han. Pregnant Pause. 2011.
Nobody gets away with telling Eleanor Crowe what to do. But as a pregnant sixteen-year-old, her options are limited: move to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry the baby’s father and work at his family’s summer camp for overweight kids.
Strand, Jeff. I Have a Bad Feeling About This. 2014.
Everything un-athletic sixteen-year-old Henry was dreading about survival camp turns out to be true – or even worse – when armed killers arrive and survival takes on a whole new meaning.
Wolf, Elaine. Camp. 2012.
Struggling with mixed feelings about sleep away camp despite her anger toward her mother who is unduly harsh with her autistic brother, Amy is subjected to humiliating “initiation” rites and relentless bullying by senior campers until a cousin reveals dark secrets about Amy’s mother’s past.