Summer camp is in the air! In recent years we’ve adopted a gentle theme for each year’s Summer Reading Guide. This summer we invited you to join us for summer camp, book lover-style. “Book camp” is the imaginary destination of our dreams where we spend all day reading books, talking about books, and deciding what books to read next—with breaks to eat, make pretty things, stare at the sky, and dip our toes into a beautiful body of water. Wouldn’t that be the life?
With that in mind, we wanted to bring you a short and sweet list of novels set at summer camps. Camp can be a formative time for so many reasons. Plus, there are so many different kinds of camps! Whether outdoorsy or geared toward the theater set, contemporary fiction or YA, this list has a little something for everyone. This list is only scratching the surface so I hope you’ll share your favorite summer camp novels (and memories) in the comments.
7 summer camp novels
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The Interestings: A Novel
To Night Owl From Dogfish
Loveboat, Taipei
Once More with Feeling
The God of the Woods
Lisa and Lottie
Beware the Kitten Holy (Lumberjanes Volume 1)
What are your favorite summer camp novels? Do you have a favorite summer camp memory? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 20 novels that will transport you to the shore, 15 backlist books that feel like summer, and 12 middle grade novels that unfold over summer break.
24 comments
I’m so excited to read ‘The God of the Woods’ on my summer vacation next week! I loved ‘Long Bright River.’
A really fun summer camp book is ‘The Box in the Woods’ by Maureen Johnson. Imagine Jessica Fletcher from ‘Murder, She Wrote’, but instead of a helpfully nosy lady of a certain age, she’s an overly curious teenage girl — that’s Stevie Bell. Camp Wonder Falls – the site of a notorious and notoriously unsolved 1978 multiple murder — has new owners with a mission: They want Stevie to dig into the cold case for a true-crime documentary and podcast. This is a super-fun homage/sendup of golden age mysteries.
The Summer of Songbirds by Kristen Harvey Woodson
I loved this book so much last summer when I read it. It’s my favorite book by the author.
For middle grades, the Percy Jackson series is summer camps for demi gods. I got my son a Camp Half-Blood tshirt for his birthday and he’s going to be obsessed.
The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey centers around a group of friends that met at Camp at age 5. In the book they are in their 30s and work to try to save the Camp. It’s fun and a tribute to friendships and nature.
I JUST finished God of the Woods last night, and the amount of sleep I lost over that book…!!! I do not normally go for that genre, but on your recommendation I picked it up. The summer camp setting made it such a good summer read. The first description I would give it is also character-driven – yes, it’s a mystery/thriller, but it’s so beautifully written, and all those backstories are wonderful! Such a satisfying ending, too, that I didn’t see coming. Thanks for the suggestions, without which I’d never have read this gem!
Summer camp for grown up women… how about a week at a French chateau?
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Ooh! What book do you mean, because that sounds like perfection but the link didn’t work for me. Thanks!
So neat to see Lisa and Lottie on this list! I have a copy from the ’80’s. It was a childhood favorite.
Two other summer camp novels are The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey and The Clover Girls by Viola Shipman.
The Clover Girls by Viola Shipman was very good!
Summer camp figures prominently in the backstory of Megan Abbott’s Give me your Hand.
“Camp” by Lev Rosen is a great queer summer camp novel. Quite enjoyed it.
I, too, devoured The God of the Woods! I couldn’t put it down!
I loved God of the Woods and, a few years back, The Interestings! To Night Owl From Dogfish is on my TBR shelf. 🙂
Not exactly the same, but Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen might scratch the itch. It’s set at a summer campground. I enjoyed it!
Along with Trixie Belden books, I also loved the Donna Parker series when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s. My favorite was Donna Parker at Cherryvale which is set in a summer camp named “Cherryvale”, where Donna and her best friend are junior counselors!
The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin is fantastic! I also loved Haven Point by Virginia Hume.
How about Tom Lake by Ann Patchett? A chunk of that book takes place at a summer camp.
Kate Spencer (former cohost of the podcast Forever 35) recently published a romance that takes place at a summer camp in NH. I enjoyed it!
Title of Kate Spencer’s new novel is One Last Summer. It’s on my library holds list.
I came here to recommend “To Nightowl from Dogfish” and was happy to see it’s already on the list. This made me feel like I was in summer camp with the two girls – such fun.
And definitely read “Das doppelte Lottchen” in German, Anne. 🙂 It has been one of my all-time favourite books since childhood and I just reread it this year with my 8 year old who loved it as well. To be fair we only know it in German, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
I appreciate the nudge in this direction! I may need an English language version as well because while I relish the opportunity to practice my rusty German, I don’t want to miss important details in the story. 🙂
That Summer Feeling is about adults reliving their childhood memories at summer camp! It was great.
I am currently reading Until Next Summer by Ali Brady. It is about adults coming back to camp. I also read Zwish You Weren’t Here by Erin Baldwin. It is a YA book about two girls who are stuck to at camp and one who doesn’t want the other there. I quite enjoyed it.
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