Library Camps

Connor Sullivan is an All-Star third baseman on his Babe Ruth League team, the Orioles. He can hit and field with the best of them, but he's got one big problem: his temper. When he strikes out or makes an error, he's a walking Mt. Vesuvius, slamming batting helmets and throwing gloves. His teammates are starting to avoid him, even his best friend Jason. His coach is ready to kick him off the team. To make matters worse, things aren't much better at home. His dad is having trouble finding a new job after being laid off. Money is tight.

"Send Us a Boy, We'll Send You a Cowboy!" is the slogan of the Box Canyon Boys Camp. But for the nail biters, thumb suckers, and teeth grinders, the cast-away offspring of parents who are busy traveling, being divorced, remarrying, and garnering fortunes, it's just another place to face rejection. Until Cotton.

For Wes and his best friend, Corey, jazz camp turns out to be lame. It’s pretty much all dudes talking in Jazz Voice. But then they jam with Ash, a charismatic girl with an unusual sound, and the three just click. It’s three and a half hours of pure musical magic, and Ash makes a decision: They need to hit the road. Because the road, not summer camp, is where bands get good. Before Wes and Corey know it, they’re in Ash’s SUV heading south, and The Haters Summer of Hate Tour has begun.

Sixteen-year-old Paisley Manning has been attending Camp Starling since she was a little girl, when her parents ran it together. For the last few years, since her father’s death, she’s been the one helping her mom run the camp behind the scenes. This year, however, will be Camp Starling’s last hurrah because Paisley’s mom has met a guy online and they’re getting married.

Lila is a young girl attending Jewish summer camp. She doesn't initially connect with the other campers and finds herself alone in the forest, where she encounters Lonny, a beautiful brown horse with white spots on his face. In Lonny, Lila finds a friend who will listen to her problems as she develops the confidence she needs to befriend the other campers.

Emma, Skylar, Jo, and Maddie have all come back to camp for a weekend of tipsy canoe trips to the island, midnight skinny-dipping in the lake, and an epic game of capture the flag - boys versus girls. But the weekend isn't quite as sunwashed as they'd imagined as the memories come flooding back.

This true story took place at the emergency farm-labor camp immortalized in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Ostracized as "dumb Okies," the children of Dust Bowl migrant laborers went without school—until Superintendent Leo Hart and 50 Okie kids built their own school in a nearby field.

Alyssa finds an amethyst, a stone believed to aid in psychic awareness. Suddenly she's interpreting dreams and making predictions, all with 100 percent accuracy. While half the camp girls are believers, the other half are skeptics, attributing the gem's track record to coincidence. Not that Alyssa cares what anyone thinks. In fact, she's so attached to the amethyst, she names it Amy. But when a prediction causes the bunk to miss a Phillies game - where Justin Timberlake sings - even the believers cross over to the dark side.

Phoenix can't imagine anything worse than being shipped off to family summer camp. Her parents have been fighting for the past two years - do they seriously think being crammed in a cabin with Phoenix and her little brother, Harry, will make things better? On top of that, Phoenix is stuck training with Callum - the head counselor who is seriously cute but a complete know-it-all. His hot-cold attitude means he's impossible to figure out - and even harder to rely on.

A famous Hollywood director comes to the Brookline Movie House to run a special New York Film Academy film camp, and Maeve couldn't be more excited - especially when she finds out this director is bringing her dreamy actor son! But Maeve's quest for the spotlight is interrupted by Madeline, the beautiful, talented, and ultra-rich daughter of the famous Krupcake King. She wants to star in the movie, too.

Eleven-year-olds Tripti Kapoor, a feisty "word nerd" from Massachusetts, and Sam Cohen, a shy, imaginative, budding geologist from California, are both miserable at Camp Dilloway, a summer camp in upstate New York. On the last night of camp, they follow a shooting star to a quiet creek. There they find two silvery rocks glowing in the night. They each take one home, and their long-distance friendship begins. It's soon clear that these are no ordinary rocks. They seem to move on their own, get strangely hot, and even take over Tripti and Sam's thoughts!

Ten-year-old Babo has grown up on an abandoned circus camp in a war-torn country. She sleeps in the old lion cage and takes care of the other parentless "leftover kids" telling them fantastical stories about the old circus days and finding ways to make them laugh. They need her. So Babo is not one single bit happy when an American couple wants to adopt her and change her name to Betti. How will her real parents ever find her all the way in America?

Meet Kevin Pugh, 12-year-old couch potato. Now meet Cromwell, his part beagle, part potato chip dog. Kevin’s looking forward to spending his summer doing as little as possible. Unfortunately, Kevin’s father, former Chicago Bears star player/super-sports fanatic, Howie Pugh, feels differently. So does Cromwell, who has suddenly and mysteriously developed a fascination with agility competitions: Running up seesaws, leaping over hurdles, soaring through hoops (sometimes).

The first thing Agnes and her best friend, Prejean, learn at science camp is that they won't be sharing the same cabin. Being apart gives Agnes a different perspective, and a few worries, about what others think of her longtime friend. Everyone seems to be going on and on about how beautiful Prejean is. A beauty queen? What if Prejean starts acting like one? Soil studies, camp pranks, and a weird bunkmate all play a role in this funny, insightful story of the everyday casualties and payoffs of growing up.

Just 75 years ago, the American government did something that most would consider unthinkable today: It rounded up over 100,000 of its own citizens based on nothing more than their ancestry and, suspicious of their loyalty, kept them in concentration camps for the better part of four years. How could this have happened? Uprooted takes a close look at the history of racism in America and carefully follows the treacherous path that led one of our nation's most beloved presidents to make this decision.

Simon is the coolest teacher anywhere. Forest Alternative is lucky to have him. When Stacy, a new kid with secrets, gleaming hair and a tongue ring, arrives she sizes up Simon and agrees, adding: "He is a total babe."

Eduardo F. Calcines was a child of Fidel Castros Cuba; he was just three years old when Castro came to power in January 1959. After that, everything changed for his family and his country. When he was 10, his family applied for an exit visa to emigrate to America and he was ridiculed by his schoolmates and even his teachers for being a traitor to his country. But even worse, his father was sent to an agricultural reform camp to do hard labor as punishment for daring to want to leave Cuba.

Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Grasshopper Jungle author Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel's story of his summer at a boys' camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late 19th century.