Sleepaway: The Girls of Summer and the Camps They Love

I went to a camp in the Pocanoes for 12 years, my daughter now goes to this very same camp! 90 years!! This summer, while spending a week with other alum from my camp, "Sleepaway" was recommended to me. This book, from cover to cover, perfectly summed up all our camp experiences. There are many, many pictues of campers all the way back to the early 1900's...very neat to see what camps looked like back then! We were excited to see our camp in there!

From the cover with the reminiscent red plaid sleeping bag graphics, to song lyrics, recipes, journal entries and photographs, this book speaks so perfectly to the universal appeal of all-girls camps in America. I was fortunate to have attended three years of girls camp & one of co-ed camp, and even the images that are 100 years old seemed to jump off the pages as if they were from my own memories from 15 years ago. I absorbed the pages voraciously, and immediately told my old camp bunkmate about the book. Wow. I cannot remember any other book touching my memories as personally, and intimately. S'mores, campfires, secret rituals within our tribe, rifelry & archery, war canoe, trampoline, running around in our underwear, singing into broom handles, medals & awards ceremonies, vespers; All girls who've attended sleepaway camps have similar testimonies--only I didn't realize how similar until I read this book!It is a wonderful gift, because it is an unexpected and pleasant reminder of a longed-for childhood gone by. It also reminded me that my own children should be afforded this same priviledge that I received! In my mid 30's I still sing my own silly camp songs as well as the ones my mother taught me from her Girl Scout camp days, and the ones Grandma taught her from her own camping memories. This book will help the traditions be preserved for another 100 years.Bravo! Can I contribute to the next edition? I have hysterical photos of costumed talent shows from an era when imitating Madonna & the B52's were considered "talents!" LOLYou can't go wrong with this book, or with sending your daughters to Sleepover camps! :O)

This book brought back to life so many of my camp experiences. I send my children to the same camp that I went to and am fortunate enough to see alumni and keep in touch with camp friends. This book flew off the shelves of every bookstore in the Portland, Maine area this summer as everyone went in search of a copy. It is a fabulous book in which Laurie Kahn has brought to print all our wonderful camp memories. Read it - you might even see photographs of that camp where you spent your childhood summers!

Open this book and you will be hit instantly with the smells and sounds of piney cabins, iron bunk beds, quiet hour, grace sung before meals, campfires, swimming buddies, skinny dipping after dark, whispers in the night, and more. If you're like me, the best summers of your life will come spinning back gloriously. Filled with instantly recognizable pictures of campers in those dreadful uniforms that made dressing so quick and easy -- white shirts, dark bloomer-like shorts, and satin neckties -- all happily sharing experiences and friendships we'll never ever forget. Nostalgia never tasted so good! This book is for every woman who was once a girl who, as soon as school was out in June, packed her metal trunk and sent it off with the Railway Express man as she took a sleeper car train trip to the New England woods for an unforgettable, carefree eight weeks of making lanyards and ashtrays (!), passing swim tests, singing silly songs we still remember the words to, playing hares and hounds and color wars, liking chipped beef on toast, loving storms that blew rain through the cabin screens, washing our hair in the lake, crying at the final campfire. I want to track down every camp friend from 13 years at 6 different camps and show them this book.

This book really took me back to the optimism of my youth and reminded me of what a fabulous life I used to have! You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll feel ten years old again! That is well worth the price of the book.