Camp Fiction

My sources tell me that this week is American Camp Week, but I can't find any information on it!  I'm still going to put out a list of YA camp fiction and even if ACW isn't an actual thing, at least we'll be dreaming about swimming in lakes and summer campfires. 

Camped Out by Daphne Greer - Max knows his mom can't afford to send him to summer camp. But he really, really wants to go. He needs a break from looking after his autistic brother, Duncan. And from his mom's new boyfriend. He is surprised when his mom says that he can go after all. But there's a catch. There are spots available at the camp for families with special needs. A grant would cover Duncan's fees, and Max could attend at no charge. If he goes as Duncan's escort.

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman - Then
Ingrid traveled all over Europe with her opera star mother, Margot-Sophia. Life was beautiful and bright, and every day soared with music.
 Now
Ingrid is on a summertime wilderness survival trek for at-risk teens: addicts, runaways, and her. She's fighting to survive crushing humiliations, physical challenges that push her to her limits, and mind games that threaten to break her.
 Then
When the curtain fell on Margot-Sophia's singing career, they buried the past and settled into a small, painfully normal life. But Ingrid longed to let the music soar again. She wanted it so much that, for a while, nothing else mattered.
 Now
Ingrid is never going to make it through this summer if she can't figure out why she's here . . . and why the music really stopped.

Jacked Up by Erica Sage - In a bizarre attempt to force Nick to confront his grief, his nonreligious parents ship him off to Jesus camp after his sister's suicide. The campers ride donkeys into the desert, snap selfies with counselors dressed as disciples, and replace song lyrics with Bible verses. And somehow, only Nick seems to find this strange. Nick is also being followed around by Jack Kerouac, who's incredibly annoying for a genius-- and a ghost. Nick drops a secret about his sister's death into the PC Box, into which campers place prayers and confessions. When the box is stolen-- and the confessions start appearing around camp-- Nick is disparate to get his confession back.

The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord - Lucy Hansson was ready for a perfect summer with her boyfriend, working at her childhood Bible camp on the lake and spending quality time with her parents. But when her mom's cancer reappears, Lucy falters-in her faith and in her ability to cope. When her boyfriend "pauses" their relationship and her summer job switches to a different camp-one for troubled kids-Lucy isn't sure how much more she can handle. Attempting to accept a new normal, Lucy slowly regains footing among her vibrant, diverse coworkers, Sundays with her mom, and a crush on a fellow counselor. But when long-hidden family secrets emerge, can Lucy set aside her problems and discover what grace really means?

The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane - According to sixteen-year-old Zander Osborne, nowhere is an actual placeand she's just fine there. But her parents insist that she get out of her headand her home stateand attend Camp Padua, a summer camp for at-risk teens.Zander does not fit inor so she thinks. She has only one word for her fellow campers: crazy. In fact, the whole camp population exists somewhere between disaster and diagnosis. There's her cabin mate Cassie, a self-described manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic. Grover Cleveland (yes, like the president), a cute but confrontational boy who expects to be schizophrenic someday, odds being what they are. And Bek, a charmingly confounding pathological liar.But amid group "share-apy" sessions and forbidden late-night outings, unlikely friendships form, and as the Michigan summer heats up, the four teens begin to reveal their tragic secrets. Zander finds herself inextricably drawn to Grover's earnest charms, and she begins to wonder if she could be happy. But first she must come completely unraveled to have any hope of putting herself back together again.

Positively by Courtney Sheinmel - Since the day Emerson Pressman and her mother were diagnosed as HIV positive, nothing has been the same. When her mother dies of AIDS, Emmy has to go live with the father and stepmother she barely knows, and she feels more alone than ever. Now she has to take pills by herself, and there is no one left who understands what it's like to be afraid every time she has a cold. But when her father decides to send her to Camp Positive, a camp for HIV-positive children, Emmy begins to realize that she's not alone after all, and that sometimes, opening up to other people can make all the difference in the world.

Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita - When Sam's best friend gets her first boyfriend, she's not ready to spend the summer listening to the two of them call each other "pookie." Sick of being a third wheel, Sam applies to be a counselor-in-training at Whispering Pines camp in the New York Catskills. But what she doesn't realize is that it's not going to be all Kumbaya sing-alongs and gooey s'mores. If Ashley, the alpha queen of Whispering Pines, doesn't ruin Sam's summer, then her raging crush on the surfer-blond and flirtatious Hunter just might. At least she has playful Cole, who's always teasing her, but is oh-so-comfortable to hang out with, and the singular gang of girls that become fast friends with Sam-they call themselves the Sleepaway Girls.

The Summer I Wasn't Me by Jessica Verdi - Ever since her mom found out she was in love with a girl, seventeen-year-old Lexi's afraid that what's left of her family is going to fall apart for good. New Horizons summer camp promises a new life for Lexi--she swears she can change. She can learn to like boys. But denying her feelings is harder than she thinks.

Thief of Happy Endings by Kristen Chandler - The first rule of riding horses is, when you fall off, you get back on. Cassidy Carrigan has literally and figuratively fallen off the horse in her life, and she's using everything in her power to not get back on. After her parents separate and her best friend deserts her, Cassidy reluctantly agrees to attend summer camp at a remote ranch in Wyoming, She figures that the change of scenery may help her face her escalating fears. But she didn't figure on how huge that change would be--the forever-wide Wyoming skies, the wild mustangs that capture her heart, and the cowboy who ends up stealing it. She also didn't realize that being brave could feel so good and cause so much trouble.

Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak - Last June, the summer camp Quinn's family owns in Winship, Maine, was still a magical place, and Quinn fell in love with her best friend, Dylan. Then the accident happened. Now it's winter; the magic has drained from Quinn's life. The new boy in town, Alexander, doesn't see her as the monster she believes herself to be. And as Quinn lets herself open up again, she begins to understand the truth about love, loss, and monsters-- real and imagined.