CAMP GIRLS

Krasnow continues to focus on intimate relationships and personal growth, this time through the lens of the summer camp experience.

A self-described “summer camp lifer,” the author, whose books include The Secret Lives of Wives and Surrendering to Motherhood, has penned an extended love letter to the lakeside camp of her youth. Throughout, she advocates for the positive, life-changing effects of camp life for all children. Starting at the age of 8, Krasnow attended northern Wisconsin’s Camp Agawak for two months and continued for the next 10 summers as a camper and counselor. “Camp…is where it all started for me,” writes the author, continuing, “all that is very adventurous, very sentimental, very brave, and very naughty about who I am today was birthed and nurtured there.” Later, the mother of four sons accompanied her boys to their summer camp to work as staff. In yet a third camp run, she returned to Agawak in her 60s to spend summers as a staff member, reviving the camp literary magazine. Krasnow organizes the chapters by traits purportedly cultivated by camp—independence, ambition, versatility, responsibility, and so on—and intersperses her recollections with those of some lifelong camp friends about how the experiences engender these qualities. While the author does fall into repetition and mawkishness as she recounts her beloved activities, songs, and traditions, most readers will be convinced of the value of summer camp in building confidence and character—especially for iGen kids. Free of technology and parental micromanagement yet “seasoned by full-throttle summers that teach us a bounty of skills,” writes the author, “we become resourceful and adventurous adults who feel like we can do just about anything—no matter our age.” Not everyone will relate to the intensity of Krasnow’s immersion in camp life, but her argument for the importance of a sacred childhood space will resonate with many.

A lighthearted read appropriate for summertime.