Remember the grass stains on a perfectly white T-shirt, the nights of mosquito buzzing and swapping, the gloppy discolored soup, the Dear (insert name here) letters crumply pushed into the lick-and-seal envelopes?

Camp. You either hated it or loved it – and you probably wrote about it.

Diane Falanga has selected and edited a few real kids’ letters from camp and packaged them nicely together in this book. Reading it might remind you of the kid that you were (or still are) and the hardships and homesickness that you were once put through.

For some, packing a medium-sized duffle bag, kissing the family adieu and going away from home for a while happened to be the best move ever. For others, it took a seven-page letter filled with I-MISS-U’s and CALL-ME’s in order to get a parent to finally understand that you really hated it there.

No matter where you crack this book open, each letter offers a unique, comically sincere taste of life at camp: sizzling s’mores on a wooden stick, shivering cold swims in the lake and much more.

P.S. You can also share your camp letters or stories at psihateithere.com.

Grade: B



P.S. I Hate It Here! is currently available.