Summer Camp(ing)

It is that time of year here in America where children are already or soon will be heading off for camp. I don't know that we realize that among many other distinctive national/cultural traits, summer camping for kids is one of those things that occurs here in the US but is uncommon or absent in most other countries. Part of it is because compared to many countries, America has very long school summer breaks, of between two and three months depending on the state and the school system.

With children underfoot for that long a period, I think it is natural that over time, the tradition has arisen of sending the kids off to summer camp. It is emotionally beneficial for both kids and parents. There is such a multiplicity of camps ranging from a simple one week session to camps lasting most of the summer. Some camps are focused on a single activity such as sailing or riding or archery. Others cover a range of activities. Most camps are single sex, some are coed. Most camps are out in the country and include camping out as part of their activities; a few are set in urban locations.

But regardless of the variety, with this tradition of summer camps comes a corollary litany of camp issues such as leaving home, homesickness, kids that are frightened of nature and the sounds of nature, the kid that doesn't fit in, the child that has no 'skills' (the dearth of which Napoleon Dynamite warned), broken limbs, poison ivy, etc. And yet for all these issues, I think the camp and camping experiences are hugely valuable to most children and probably one of the most underrated factors in the storing up of rich experiences in a child's life. It is not impossible that a child learns more about what is important for them to know in a long summer camp session than in the school year that preceded it.

A big part of the experience is simply having to make their own way in a social environment where they cannot draw upon the support of their parents. It is not quite sink-or-swim but they are thrown on their own resources in a fashion that they never could be at home. Children are brutally efficient at socializing their peers. They have norms of behavior that they expect of one another (which are not necessarily even close to the behaviors expected of them by their parents) and a range of techniques for exacting those behaviors that create much of the tension and dynamic of childhood experience and stories. Lord of the Flies sometimes doesn't seem all that extreme compared to real life.

I have fond memories of my camping experiences which seem exotic having been overseas but which at their core are much of a like with any child's camping experience: the interaction of a bunch of children for a specific period of time within a managed structure but with loose supervision and plenty of opportunity to stretch one's wings of autonomy. The pleasure of learning to braid a lanyard, paint a pottery jug, to be the first one to get the greased watermelon to shore, to hit a bulls-eye with your arrow, to have your crab win the crab race, and on and on far outweigh the mortification of having to learn a skit and perform it or whatever other drawback there was to camp.

For me the greatest pleasure, though, was the interaction with nature. The books I most treasured were those that told the stories of children learning how to survive and live off the land - camping was the closest proxy to experiencing what I was reading. Cooking the hot dogs Mom packed in a Tupperware box over a fire might not have been in the same league as killing and dressing some wild beast for your meal; but it was close enough.

What are some good books to read about camp and camping? Well, interestingly, there are a lot more books about the experience of camping (as in hiking and sleeping out in the open) than there are about camp. Here are a selection that we have organized by type. For younger members of the family perhaps heading off to camp for the first time, there are a selection of picture books that introduce the idea of camps and camping.

We have included some series books of which we are not especially wild but which might be useful if your child is already familiar with and a fan of.

Independent Reader books include some early Learn to Read type books as well as independent reader chapter books covering the experience of camp, camping, adventures in the wild, etc. These books are more for third to sixth grade level introducing them to a context of camping and hopefully by reading the experiences of others allay concerns they might have.

Survival Stories/YA is a group of stories more to do with survival camping than the experience of camp per se. Gripping tales for those that are either very much into camping, or may be thinking of themselves as above it and need to have their interest reignited.

In the Reference category we have a mix of the type of book you want to reference before a camp out (songs, bad jokes and worse riddles, etc.) as well as books for those that are interested in the mechanics of camping out (how to rig a lean-to, how to build a saddle pack for your dog). Our dog Merlin has so far barely avoided the fate of becoming a pack dog but our youngest boy keeps pulling out the instructions so I am not sure Merlin is free and clear yet.

And for those that need the frisson of disaster, we have Camping Gone Wrong featuring a couple of the less ghoulish and sensationalist accounts of the Donner Party as well as a fascinating but tragic tale by Jon Krakauer. The first two are appropriate for independent readers/Young Adult while the last is really more for the Young Adult.

We haven't included the stories, but think about using camping as a great opportunity to introduce some of the pioneers in American history in a way that provides context - Lewis & Clark, Kit Carson, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, etc. When kids are doing something that is concrete, it makes those stories not so much a lesson in history and more of a story they can experience.


Books introducing the idea of camp for young ones

Bear Hug by Laurence P. Pringle & Kate Salley Palmer
Franklin's Canoe Trip by Sharon Jennings & Sean Jeffrey
In the Bush by Roland Harvey
Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer
Mog in the Dark by Judith Kerr
Orlando the Marmalade Cat by Kathleen Hale
Quiet Night by Marilyn Singer & John Manders
S Is for S'mores by Helen Foster James & Lita Judge
The Berenstain Bears and the Ghost of the Forest by Stan Berenstain & Jan Berenstain
The Lost Lake by Allen Say

Series/Learn to Read Books

Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping by Peggy Parish & Lynn Sweat
Angelina And Henry by Katharine Holabird & Helen Craig
Arthur's Camp-Out by Lillian Hoban
Babar's Rescue (by the son, not the father) by Laurent de Brunhoff
Bailey Goes Camping by Kevin Henkes
Camping Out (Little Critters) by Mercer Mayer
Cam Jansen and the Summer Camp Mysteries by David A. Adler & Joy Allen
Curious George Goes Camping (by the wife, not the husband) Margret Rey & H. A. Rey
Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night by Cynthia Rylant & Sucie Stevenson
Maisy Goes Camping by Lucy Cousins

Independent Reader

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Donald McKay
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Steven Kellogg
Chasing Bears by Earl Fleck
Chasing Fire by Earl Fleck
Eight Cousins or the Aunt-Hill by Louisa May Alcott
Ellie McDoodle by Ruth Mcnally Barshaw
Holes by Louis Sachar
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Let's Get Primitive by Heather Menicucci & Susie Ghahremani
Little Horse on His Own by Betsy Cromer Byars & David McPhail
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Riding Camp by Bonnie Bryant
Sally Goes to the Mountains by Stephen Huneck
Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen & Brian Biggs
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain & Donald (ILT) McKay
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
The Summer Camp Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner & Hodges Soileau
The Night Before Summer Camp by Natasha Wing & Mindy Pierce
Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp by Debbie Dadey

Survival stories/YA

A Journey Through Texas by Frederick Law Olmsted & Witold Rybczynski
A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements
Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen
Death Mountain by Sherry Shahan
Far North by Will Hobbs
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell & Ted Lewin
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat & Charles Geer
Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler & Joseph B. Egan
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe & W. J. Linton & W. J. Linton
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss & Lynd Kendall Ward
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
The Cay (audio book) by Theodore Taylor narrated by Michael Boatman
The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss & Louis John Rhead & Louis John Rhead

Reference

Riddles and More Riddles! by Bennett Cerf & Debbie (ILT) Palen
Camp-Lore And Woodcraft by Dan Beard
Camping and Woodcraft by Horace Kephart
Camping for Dummies by Michael Hodgson
How to Stay Alive in the Woods by Bradford Angier & Vena Angier
SAS Survival Handbook by John Wiseman
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell
The American Boy's Handy Book by Daniel Carter Beard
The American Girl's Handy Book by Lina Beard & Adelia Beard
The Foxfire Book by Eliot Wigginton
The Kids Campfire Book by Jane Drake & Ann Love & Heather Collins
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven & David Borgenicht
Toasting Marshmallows by Kristine O'Connell George & Kate Kiesler
Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children by Tom Brown & Judy Brown & Heather Bolyn & Trip Becker
Woodcraft and Indian Lore by Ernest Thompson Seton
Worst Case Scenario Book Of Survival Questions by Joshua Piven & David Borgenicht & Brenda Brown

Camping Gone Wrong

The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party by Marian Calabro
Snowbound by David Lavender
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer