By Kari Staub

Mystery, thrills, romance…who knew things could get so interesting at summer camp? For teens and tweens looking for that next great summer read, but not just a beach read, things are about to get camp-y!

Teen Reads

Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita: Sick of being third wheel to her best friend’s newfound couple status, Sam applies to be a camp counselor at Whispering Pines Camp in the New York Catskills. Soon she makes fast friends with a girl gang that call themselves ‘Sleepaway Girls’. By the end of summer, Sam learns numerous lessons in love, standing up for herself and the importance of friendship.

Flamer by Mike Curato: It’s the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone’s going through changes-but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can’t stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance.

The Matchbreaker Summer by Annie Rains: After attending Camp Starling her whole childhood, this will be Paisley’s first year as a camp counselor at the camp run by her family. She’s excited until she learns that her mother plans to sell the camp at the end of the summer so they can move to Wyoming with her new boyfriend. Paisley finds an unlikely ally in troublemaker Hayden, and together they decide to break up her mom and boyfriend Dave.

Lumberjanes by ND Stevenson: Best friends Jo, April, Mal and Ripley spend a fun summer at Lumberjane scout camp where they encounter yetis, three-eyed wolves, and giant falcons while solving a mystery that holds the fate of the world in the balance.

Holler of the Fireflies by David Barclay Moore: Javari can hardly believe his luck when he is selected to attend STEM camp in West Virginia for the summer. He knows it will be different from his home in Brooklyn, and he is expecting to learn a lot about science, technology, engineering and math. What he actually learns blows his mind wide open, as he is introduced to activism, different ideas about racism, rich people and hidden agendas. Throw in an unlikely friendship with a local teen, and things are about to get messy, complicated and confusing. For once, Javari wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Counselors by Jessica Goodman: Eighteen year old Goldie has always felt safe at Camp Alpine Lake, even if she is not wealthy or privileged like the majority of the other campers. She and her two best friends have reunited there every summer for as long as she can remember, and this summer will be even better as they are all going to be counselors. But a shadow falls on their fun-filled summer when a dead body washes up on the camp’s beach one morning. Even worse, it appears that Goldie and her friends may have some kind of connection to the victim, as well as the events leading up to his death.

Things I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally: Good girl Kate is looking forward to spending the summer as a counselor at Cumberland Creek Summer camp. Her classmates have always felt she is “too good”, but they don’t know the guilty secret she carries. This summer Kate is ready to put the past behind her, but her life and personal views change as the summer brings to light the facts of life and the truth about right and wrong…and not everything is as it seems anymore.

Tween Reads

In the Key Of Us by Mariama Lockington: While twelve-year-old Andi has suffered from anxiety attacks ever since her mother died ten months ago, Zora starting hurting herself whenever she feels out of control; they are both at Camp Harmony, an elite summer music camp, trying to deal with their problems and also the stress of competition–but as the summer passes they find themselves increasingly drawn to each other, and maybe not just as friends.

Upstaged by Robin Easter: Best friends Ivy and Ash arrive for a third summer at arts camp, where Ash struggles to tell Ivy about developing feelings for her.

Camp Sylvania: Magnolia “Maggie” Hagen is determined to be in the spotlight…if she can just get over her stage fright. This summer, though, she has big plans to finally attend Camp Rising Star, the famous performing arts camp she’s been dying to go to for three whole summers. But then her parents break the news: Maggie isn’t going to Camp Rising Star. She’s being shipped off to fat camp–and not just any fat camp. She’s going to Camp Sylvania, run by world-famous wellness influencer Sylvia Sylvania, who is known for her soon-to-be patented Scarlet Diet. When Maggie arrives at camp, things are… weird. There are the humiliating weigh-ins and grueling workouts, as expected. But the campers are also encouraged to donate blood–at their age! There are even rumors of a camp ghost. Despite these horrors, Maggie makes friends and starts to actually enjoy herself. There are even tryouts for a camp production of The Music Man! This place might not be so bad…until campers start going missing and suspicious things begin happening–especially after dark.

Summer at Squee by Andrea Wang: Tween Phoenny Fang attends a Chinese cultural overnight camp where she explores new friendships and first crushes and discovers a deeper understanding of her community.

To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer: Avery Bloom, who’s bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Bett Devlin, who’s fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the ocean, lives in California. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads. When their dads fall in love, Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same sleepaway camp. Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends—and possibly, one day, even sisters. But things soon go off the rails for the girls (and for their dads too), and they find themselves on a summer adventure that neither of them could have predicted. Now that they can’t imagine life without each other, will the two girls (who sometimes call themselves Night Owl and Dogfish) figure out a way to be a family?