Camp Awesomeness

So I know i did the summer camp list type oost before but guess what I have recently applied and accepted a job at a camp from now till next summer.This camp is a lot more serious than previous ones I worked at but just as fun so I decide to revise summer camp for a post.

Title: Don't Ever Change
Author: Beth Bloom

Eva has always wanted to write a modern classic—one that actually appeals to her generation. The only problem is that she has realized she can't "write what she knows" because she hasn't yet begun to live. So before heading off to college, Eva is determined to get a life worth writing about.

Soon Eva's life encounters a few unexpected plot twists. She becomes a counselor at a nearby summer camp—a job she is completely unqualified for. She starts growing apart from her best friends before they've even left for school. And most surprising of all, she begins to fall for the last guy she would have ever imagined. But no matter the roadblocks, or writer's blocks, it is all up to Eva to figure out how she wants this chapter in her story to end. 




Title: moose: a memoir of a fat camp
Author: Stephanie Klein
With her signature acerbic wit and captivating insight, the author of the wildly popular Straight Up and Dirty offers a powerful and beautifully stark portrait of adolescence

While she is pregnant with twins, one sentence uttered by her doctor sends Stephanie Klein reeling: "You need to gain fifty pounds." Instantly, an adolescence filled with insecurity and embarrassment comes flooding back. Though she is determined to gain the weight for the health of her babies—even if it means she'll "weigh more than a Honda"—she can only express her deep fear by telling her doctor simply, "I used to be fat."

Title: The Firelight Girls

Author: Kaya McLaren
The summers you spend at summer camp are indelibly etched on your heart. But what happens when the camp you love is about to close? Can you ever really say goodbye to the place that made you who you are? These are the questions that plagues Ethel, the seventy-year-old former camp director who is nursing a broken heart after losing the love of her life as she now faces the impending closure of the camp on Lake Wenatchee that she called home

. It's also a question that inspires change in forty-year-old Shannon, who spent the summers of her youth as a vibrant, capable camp counselor and is now directionless after watching her career implode. And there's Laura, who has lost all intimacy with her husband and doesn't know if she can save what seems to be gone forever. 

Finally, Ruby, who betrayed Ethel years ago and hasn't spoken to her since, hopes this will be her chance to make amends. When the four women learn that a homeless teen has been hiding at camp, they realize camp is something much more immediate for all: survival.


And so the three generations of women search for a way to save the place that saved them all, finding in the process a way back to themselves and each other in The Firelight Girls, Kaya McLaren's novel of love and loss, heartbreak and healing

Title: The Lost Summer

Author: Katherine Williams 

"I died one summer, or I almost did. Part of me did. I don't say that to be dramatic, only because it's true."

For the past nine years, Helena Waite has been returning to summer camp at Southpoint. Every year the camp and its familiar routines, landmarks, and people have welcomed her back like a long-lost family member. But this year she is returning not as a camper, but as a counselor, while her best friend, Katie Bell remains behind. All too quickly, Helena discovers that the innocent world of campfires, singalongs, and field days have been pushed aside for late night pranks on the boys' camp, skinny dipping in the lake, and stolen kisses in the hayloft. As she struggles to define herself in this new world, Helena begins to lose sight of what made camp special and the friendships that have sustained her for so many years. And when Ransome, her longtime crush, becomes a romantic reality, life gets even more confusing.

Told with honesty and heart, Kathryn Williams' second novel tackles the timeless theme of growing up, set at a camp where innocence is created and lost.

It's A Summer Thing

So for the third summer in a row I'm off to work at a sleep away camp for the summer.This summer will be a bit different however because I'm not returning to Camp K but instead working at a Girl Scout Camp in Wisconsin.I just got word a few days ago that I got the job and needless to say I have camp on the brain. I leave for staff training in a week and while deciding what books to bring on the very slim chance that I get some time on my days off to read I started to wonder if there were any good books revolving around a summer camp. 

I couldn't think of any that I've read besides OyMG by Amy Fellner Dominy-which is pretty hilarious and touching-so i searched for camp related books on Goodreads and discovered a bunch of campish books.So below Iv'e included both fiction and non fiction books with a camp setting that I would really like to read at some point.

Title:Five Summer
Author: Una LaMarche
Fiction,YA
Four best friends, five summers of camp memories. 

The summer we were nine: Emma was branded “Skylar’s friend Emma” by the infamous Adam Loring...
The summer we were ten: Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth...
The summer we were eleven: Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle...
The summer we were twelve: Skylar’s love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us—except Skylar...
Our last summer together: Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddie’s secret. Skylar did something unthinkable... and whether we knew it then or not, five summers of friendship began to fall apart. 

Three years after the fateful last night of camp, the four of us are coming back to camp for reunion weekend—and for a second chance. Bittersweet, funny, and achingly honest, Five Summers is a story of friendship, love, and growing up that is perfect for fans of Anne Brashares and Judy Blume's Summer Sisters.

Title:Things I Can't Forget
Author:Miranda Keneally
Fiction,YA
Kate has always been the good girl. Too good, according to some people at school—although they have no idea the guilty secret she carries. But this summer, everything is different…

This summer she’s a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, and she wants to put the past behind her. This summer Matt is back as a counselor too. He’s the first guy she ever kissed, and he’s gone from a geeky songwriter who loved The Hardy Boys to a buff lifeguard who loves to flirt--with her.

Kate used to think the world was black and white, right and wrong. Turns out, life isn’t that easy…



Title:Not A Happer Camper 

Author:Mindy Schneider
Non-Fiction,Memoir 

Remember those long sultry summer days at camp, the sun setting over the lake as you sang Kumbaya? Well, Mindy Schneider remembers her summer at Camp Kin-A-Hurra in 1974 just a wee bit differently. Not a Happy Camper chronicles a young girl’s adventures at a camp where the sun never shines, the breakfast cereal dates back to the summer of 1922, and many of the counselors speak no English. For eight eye-opening and unforgettable weeks, 
Mindy and her eccentric band of friends — including Autumn Evening Schwartz, the daughter of hippies who communicates with the dead, and the sleep-dancing, bibliophile Betty Gilbert — keep busy feuding in color wars, failing at sports, and uncovering the camp’s hidden past. As she focuses on landing the perfect boyfriend and longs for her first kiss, Mindy unexpectedly stumbles across something infinitely grander: herself. Hilarious, charming, and glowing with nostalgia, Mindy Schneider’s memoir is a must-read for anyone who’s ever been to summer camp, or wishes they had


Title:Cabin Pressure: One Man's Desperate Attempt to Recapture His Youth as a Camp Counselor
Author:Josh Wolk
Non-Fiction,Memoir 

Three months before getting married at age thirty-four, Josh Wolk decides to treat himself to a "farewell to childhood" extravaganza: one last summer working at the beloved Maine boys' camp where he spent most of the eighties. And there he finds out that there's no better way to see how much you've changed than to revisit a place that hasn't changed at all.In these eight hilarious, uncomfortable, enlightening weeks, Josh readjusts to life teaching swimming and balancing on a thin metal cot in a cabin of shouting, wrestling, wet-willie-dispensing fourteen-year-olds who, contrary to the warnings of doom saying sociologists, he finds indistinguishable from the rowdy fourteen-year-olds of his day in any way other than their haircuts. With his old camp friends gone, he finds himself working alongside guys who used to be his campers.

 Moments of feeling cripplingly old are offset by the corrosive insecurities of his youth when he's paired in the cabin with Mitch, the forty-two-year-old jack-of-all- extreme-sports whose machismo intimidated Josh so much fifteen years earlier, and whom their current campers idolize. And throughout all this disorienting regression, Josh's telephone conversations with his fiance, Christine, grow increasingly intense as their often comical discussions over the wedding become a flimsy cover for her worries that he's not ready to relinquish his death-grip on the comforts of the past.

So there ya go fellow bloggers and blog reader my list of books related to summer camps.

Have any camp related book recommendations. A funny stories when you were a camper or counselor then go right ahead and leave me a comment I'd love to hear from you.

The Bookish Side At Camp (Part 1)

So this summer I worked at an all girls summer camp that I'm Just going to call Camp K. It was an awesome experience and I loved meeting all the campers and working with the people that I did, this was my second year working at Camp K and I'm glad I went back. Something that I noticed this year that I didn't notice last year was the abundance of books certain campers brought with them. One campers brought 8 books with her and by the time the 2 week session was done she read at least 5 of them!! Another Campers brought almost the same amount of books with her and finished half of them plus borrowed other campers books to read and finished those.

As an avid book reader I was impressed by the variety of books I saw being read throughout the camp. I was also impressed by the dedication to reading a lot of the campers had, seriously if it would have been allowed some of these girls would have never but their books down. However as a camp counselor it was frustrating at times when I had to get girls to interact and engage with one another and all they wanted to do was read. O_o We were outdoors and sometime it was like pulling teeth to get girls to appreciate the fact that they were at camp surrounded by nature or join in on team discussions. I encourage reading but there's a time and place for everything and for the most part camp wasn't the right place....unless it was Chill time or Siesta 

The age range for the campers at Camp K is from 9 to 15 and then you had the CIT's who are 16.For those of you wondering CIT stands for counselor in training, essentially the CIT's were 60% camper and 40% counselor they were learning the ropes to become a counselor while enjoying the perks of being a camper for one last time. .Once you moved on to the staff the ages varied from 17 to 24.The youngest was the one junior counselor who was 17.

So with all that said,Camp K had girls/woman ranging from 9 to 24..that's a pretty broad spectrum for books.What I loved was that you had a 9yr old reading Little Women,an 11yr old reading Carrie by Steven King,a CIT reading a book on complex math theories and the mysteries of math and almost all the "adult" counselors reading a variety of young adult books.It was super interesting to see the variety of books my fellow staff was reading and the campers as well.I decided that sometime in the near future I'm going to make a post with a list of books I saw the campers and staff reading.This post is pretty was my lead in for that post.

I was going to included the list of books in this post but the intro just grew and grew.I probably could talk/write nonstop about the campers,camp and my experience at Camp K but I decide to stick to the bookish side of camp.Stay tuned for my next post The Bookish Side At Camp K (Part 2).

Also feel free to share your favorite camp memory if you were a camper or Counselor!!!!! :)
P.S Shout out to any camper from Camp K who stumbles across my blog.You rock!!