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Sleepaway: The Girls of Summer and the Camps They Love
 
 
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Sleepaway: The Girls of Summer and the Camps They Love [Paperback]

Laurie Susan Kahn (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 1, 2003
Remember how you cried when you first arrived at camp? Then sobbed when it was time to leave? From goofy pranks and late-night giggling to life-changing friendships, summer camp is an experience that girls love-and women never forget.

With the warm and nostalgic feel of a scrapbook, Sleepaway transports grown-up campers back to the treasured days of summer and their first taste of independence. Written by Laurie S. Kahn, a former advertising executive (who overcame her disappointment at not being color war captain only when she was named director of radio and television production at Young & Rubicam in New York), Sleepaway collects a hundred years of camp lore, plus vintage photographs, letters, songs, badges, postcards, and autographed pillowcases. Here are stories that instantly evoke memories of a first bunk (remember the smell of damp towels piled up on a rainy day?), of swimming tests and socials (a chance for a first kiss!), of rowdy singalongs, joyous mealtimes, mail call, and the hilarity of a short-sheeted bed. There's a recipe for bug juice; instructions for playing jacks, folding the perfect hospital corner, and making a lanyard; camp packing lists; Best Make-Out Songs by Decade; and--at last!--the complete lyrics to John Jacob Jingelheimer Schmidt. A perfect gift for every woman who wishes she still had name tags in her clothes.

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5 Up-Charm marks this nostalgic look at girls' sleepaway camps. Pages of uncaptioned vintage photographs accompany glowing first-person remembrances by women who spent girlhood summers making lanyards and lifelong friends. Valuable as an oral and visual history of an experience common to many girls, the book is fun to browse. Though spread over the decades of the 20th century, the reminiscences are remarkably similar, both in terms of the activities recounted and in the personal growth achieved. Over and over, the interviewees recall camp as the place where they learned the value of personal discipline, were encouraged to try new things and set aside inhibitions, and began to realize their full potential. Kahn includes mystery meat, short-sheeted beds, sing-along songs, swimming, horseback riding, color wars, and s'mores, but friendship in an all-girl community is consistently the highlight of the experience here. So luminous are the descriptions that readers must conclude that no camper ever had a truly negative experience. Despite the emotional and visual appeal of Sleepaway, it is dedicated to a niche experience, and will be of limited value to most school libraries. Possibly of help to students seeking examples of oral-history projects, it may also appeal to readers who enjoy juvenile fiction set in camps, such as Kate Klise's Letters from Camp (1999) and Regarding the Fountain (1998, both Avon).
Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Laurie S. Kahn attended Camp Kear-Sarge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for nine years. She also attended the University of Wisconsin before coming to New York to work on Madison Avenue. She now bunks in Noyac, New York.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (May 1, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0761126910
  • ISBN-13: 978-0761126911
  • Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 10.8 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Camp Spirit from cover to cover!, December 29, 2003
By 
Lisandrea Wentland (Virginia Beach, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Sleepaway: The Girls of Summer and the Camps They Love (Paperback)
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!" LOL

You can't go wrong with this book, or with sending your daughters to Sleepover camps! :O)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgia, August 28, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Sleepaway: The Girls of Summer and the Camps They Love (Paperback)
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!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A10-star book for all women who ever went to sleepaway camp!, July 3, 2003
By 
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Sleepaway: The Girls of Summer and the Camps They Love (Paperback)
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.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
square braid, stamp your feet, color war, bug juice
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Camp Spirit, New Hampshire, New York, Terminal Turk's Head, Camp Ava, Green Cove, Louise Carlisle, Tonk Hill
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