Not a Happy Camper: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Mindy Schneider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2007

Remember those long sultry summer days at camp, the sun setting over the lake as you sang Kumbaya? Well, Mindy Schneider remembers her summer at Camp Kin-A-Hurra in 1974 just a wee bit differently. Not a Happy Camper chronicles a young girl’s adventures at a camp where the sun never shines, the breakfast cereal dates back to the summer of 1922, and many of the counselors speak no English. For eight eye-opening and unforgettable weeks, Mindy and her eccentric band of friends — including Autumn Evening Schwartz, the daughter of hippies who communicates with the dead, and the sleep-dancing, bibliophile Betty Gilbert — keep busy feuding in color wars, failing at sports, and uncovering the camp’s hidden past. As she focuses on landing the perfect boyfriend and longs for her first kiss, Mindy unexpectedly stumbles across something infinitely grander: herself. Hilarious, charming, and glowing with nostalgia, Mindy Schneider’s memoir is a must-read for anyone who’s ever been to summer camp, or wishes they had.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in what now seems an almost impossibly innocent time, the 1970s, this sweet tale takes a nostalgic look back at the experience of attending sleepaway camp through the eyes of a 13-year-old Jewish girl. Though this may not be quite the camp many baby boomers attended, Schneider succeeds in provoking gentle flashbacks to a simpler shared time of teenage angst and hormone surges, before cable television, all recalled in a humorous tone: "Least we won't have to hear about Watergate anymore.... I'm so sick of those hearings being on instead of Match Game." Schneider (Life's a Stitch) spends eight weeks in the rain-soaked Maine woods at, as she dubs it an "anti-camp," and despite the title, loves it. Unlike more structured camps for Long Island blue bloods, offering kickball, tennis, swimming and nature walks, Kin-A-Hurra operated on the haphazard wavelength of "do anything you want any time you want, unless you just want to do nothing." Activities include an overnight trip to the highest peak in Maine, provisioned with industrial-size cans of peach nectar, raw carrots and chicken parts for dinner, or shopping sprees to a local junk shop. This hands-off policy leaves plenty of time for Schneider and her bunkmates to discover boys, the outdoors and, ultimately, a little bit about themselves. (June)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (June 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802118488
• ISBN-13: 978-0802118486
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,726,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and beautifully written, June 16, 2007

By 

E. Byron (Studio City, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not a Happy Camper: A Memoir (Hardcover)

This book's such a fun read. Schneider has a wonderfully witty and quirky voice. You actually feel like you're at this nutty sleepaway camp with her. I spent one summer at sleepaway camp myself and totally hated it - yet this book actually made me miss that time. It's the perfect summer story.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Repetitive, predictable, but amusing memoir lasts almost as long as an endless summer camp, September 16, 2008

By 

Bruce J. Wasser (Lake Bluff, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Not a Happy Camper: A Memoir (Paperback)

Readers will find that enduring Mindy Schneider's entertaining memoir of summer camp life is much like her experience: a seemingly endless trudge through a benignly monotonous, routinely humorous and absolutely predictable right of passage. "Not a Happy Camper" faithfully recreates Schneider's thirteen-year-old awkwardness, and self-deprecatory voice is full of genuine Jewish angst and humor. Nevertheless, there is only so much you can say about a pathetically decrepit Maine summer camp and its stereotypical denizens. Schneider takes about 230 pages to recount what she could have told in 25.

Duped by the slick-talking owner of Camp Kin-A-Hura (Hebrew for "Are You Out of Mind for Sending Your Child Here?"), Mindy's parents succumb to a barrage of sweetened lies and sign their resigned daughter to a summer's worth of unsupervised, unstructured (unless you consider binge consumption of candy an organized event) and uninspiring activities. There, Mindy discovers the joy of listening to rain on the roof, eating institutional food whose origins and nutritional value are at best dubious and interacting with a group of disaffected, disinterested and disillusioned Jewish early adolescents.

Naturally enough, Mindy wrestles with the weighty issues of trying to navigate the entire summer unnoticed by the cool kids and getting a boyfriend. It doesn't require a genius to predict that the relatively plain Mindy will set her sights on the camp's hunk, only to be consistently rebuffed, all the while letting the gem (the dork who undoubtedly will grow up to be a real mensch) slip through her fingers. Parading with her in this laissez-faire fairyland is a group of characters right out of central casting: the overbuilt air-brained beauties, the sophisticate who believes in reincarnation, the sleepwalker, the recluse and the oversexed camp counselors, whose main advice is akin to "leave us alone."

Mindy is bright enough to understand that the camp divides itself into two: the "Legacies" and the "Losers." Naturally enough, the Legacies, the "children of former campers," are "rich kids destined to lead relatively easy and productive lives." The "Losers," unsurprisingly, are "paste-eaters...conned into coming to this place in spite of the unbridled self-doubt and absolute lack of social skills." Schneider attempts to depict a certain poignancy in the interaction of both groups; sadly, the results are flat and unsurprising.

After a delightful thirty pages or so, "Not a Happy Camper" descends quickly into a seemingly interminable monologue about summer camp. For those who have graduated from this so-called life-altering time away from home, the head-nodding recognition of pranks and pratfalls could dangerous veer into whiplash. For the uninitiated, this memoir will convince them that they really haven't missed much at all.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars something for everyone, June 6, 2007

By 

LAF (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Not a Happy Camper: A Memoir (Hardcover)

If you are now or have ever been a teenager, whether you've been to summer camp or not, this book is sure to engage and delight you. This is a thoroughly amusing memoir written with the perspective that a few years will bring, while still appealing to the kid in all of us. The author draws a vivid picture of her experience and treats you to an insightful peek into her process of growing up a little in a new environment. You will laugh from page one and you will hope for a sequel. It's a great, light read. The narrative keeps you turning the pages. I've never written a review on Amazon before but this author made me do it! Brava Mindy Schneider. I'm waiting for your next book.