Summer camp is in the air! In recent years we’ve adopted a gentle theme for each year’s Summer Reading Guide. This summer we invited you to join us for summer camp, book lover-style. “Book camp” is the imaginary destination of our dreams where we spend all day reading books, talking about books, and deciding what books to read next—with breaks to eat, make pretty things, stare at the sky, and dip our toes into a beautiful body of water. Wouldn’t that be the life?

With that in mind, we wanted to bring you a short and sweet list of novels set at summer camps. Camp can be a formative time for so many reasons. Plus, there are so many different kinds of camps! Whether outdoorsy or geared toward the theater set, contemporary fiction or YA, this list has a little something for everyone. This list is only scratching the surface so I hope you’ll share your favorite summer camp novels (and memories) in the comments.

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Did you know the movie The Parent Trap is based on a German children’s book? Shannan shared this fact in a meeting earlier this summer and it blew my mind: how could I not have known? In the 1949 original tale, two 10-year-old girls meet at summer camp and figure out they’re twins, then conspire to get their divorced parents back together. This landed on my TBR after Shannan read it and reported back that it was worth the reading time. (Dare I try it in the original German?) More info →

This middle grade graphic novel series set at summer camp is an absolute delight. But this is no ordinary summer camp: the five best friends Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley must figure out how to solve puzzles, defeat yetis, three-eyed wolves, and giant falcons, and evade the watchful eyes of their counselor. What, like magical quests and supernatural critters weren’t part of your summer camp? (This volume includes Lumberjanes #1-#4.) More info →

This story introduces us to a group of friends who first meet at an artsy summer camp in 1970s upstate New York, and follows them for decades, well into mid-life. For as much as I’d heard about this book, I was still surprised to find how exactly it suited my reading taste; it hits the same notes as Cara Wall’s The Dearly Beloved. Major thanks to team member Ginger for raving about this book for years, and on What Should I Read Next #430, where we tell you all about this year’s Summer Reading Guide, and she tells us more about The Interestings. It was just the nudge I needed. More info →

This collaboration between two successful authors—one who primarily writes for kids, the other for grown-ups—features two twelve-year old girls living on opposite coasts who become something like pen pals after they discover their single fathers fell in love at a building conference and are now dating. This relationship is not good news to either of them, as they make clear in the ensuing emails that comprise the book. Their situation goes from bad to worse when their fathers force them to attend the same summer camp, hoping they’ll become friends. Things go horribly wrong in more ways than one, but there’s not a page here that doesn’t feel fresh, funny, charming, and real. A big-hearted story for readers of all ages. More info →

This fun 2020 series opener features a girl traveling halfway around the world to find herself, and maybe find love, too. Ever Wong is an eighteen-year-old Asian American girl in Ohio, a talented dancer who, unknown to her parents, harbors dreams of pursuing professional dance when she graduates. When her parents find out she’s considering abandoning the medical school path they’ve always dreamt of for their daughter, they promptly put her on a plane to Taiwan to spend the rest of the summer at Chien Tan—an immersive high school program that focuses on language and culture. She does NOT want to go, but when she arrives, she’s surprised to discover that far from the scholarly summer she expected. The students themselves call the program “Loveboat,” because so many long-term relationships begin here and because leisure time abounds. This trilogy is now complete, so if you enjoy this you have two more books to look forward to. More info →

This 2023 Summer Reading Guide selection is a pitch-perfect second-chance romance with a summer camp backstory. When persona non grata Kathleen Rosenberg is offered the starring role in her best friend’s musical, she can’t say no: this is the best thing to happen to her since her music career went down in flames ten years ago. But there’s a catch: the director is Cal Kirby, and he’s the reason the whole world hates her. Nevertheless, Kathleen says yes, and the story takes us from auditions to workshop to out-of-town tryouts as their musical gets ready for its big debut, and Cal and Kathleen reckon with their past and present. Bold, sassy, and packed with fun gossipy industry details and (fictional) celebrity dirt. More info →

Moore’s latest is a family saga, missing persons tale, and 1970s summer camp story rolled into one. One August morning in 1975, a camper vanishes without a trace. But not just any camper: she’s the daughter of the wealthy family who owns this camp, and fourteen years before, her older brother similarly disappeared. As the family, the campers themselves, and the neighboring blue-collar town residents gather to search for the girl, everyone suspects the two missing children must be linked, but how? The mystery is a driving force, but Moore’s story is complex and carefully layered, with a large cast of believably drawn characters who add texture and nuance. A character-driven, compulsively readable literary mystery and a 2024 MMD Minimalist Summer Reading Guide pick. More info →

What are your favorite summer camp novels? Do you have a favorite summer camp memory? Please share in the comments.

P.S. 20 novels that will transport you to the shore, 15 backlist books that feel like summer, and 12 middle grade novels that unfold over summer break.