Books:
Seventeen Wishes (Book 9 of the Christy Miller Series)
By Robin Jones Gunn
This is part of the Christy Miller series, which are fabulous Christian books! Poor Christy has a problem cabin and a potential camp romance all in one week. Most Camp Addicts have had a week or two like that :)
Camp Sunnyside Friends
Marilyn Kaye
This is the series I wish I had known about when I was a kid/teenager! It's about five friends who have been in the same cabin at camp (Cabin 6!) for three years and all the fun they have the summer they are 11/12 years old. I just discovered it a few months ago, and it is my favorite camp series.
Camp Wana Banana Mysteries
By Becky Freeman
These books are so cute. They are in the Children of Faith collection. They are shorter and aimed at younger kids. The series is about two sets of fraternal twins who are best friends and also live year-round at the Christian summer camp that one father owns and the other is in charge of the horses.
Camp Girl-Meets-Boy and Camp Reunion
By Caroline B. Cooney
This is a two book series. The first is about...what else...camp romance! The second deals with what it's like to encounter your camp friends outside the magical world of camp.
Camp Chronicles
By Tanita S. Davis
The premise of this book is that a sixteen-year-old girl is promoted from kitchen staff to program director on her first day of camp. I don't know that that would ever happen (or that that would actually be a promotion), but the new position allows for a lot more interaction between campers and counselors. There are some camp romance surprises in this book.
There are tons of books with camp as a theme out there. I have around 60 in my collection. My favorite place to look for books about camp is half.com.
Movies:
Indian Summer
Starring: Alan Arkin, Elizabeth Perkins, Diane Lane, Bill Paxton
This is my absolute favorite camp movie! It's about a bunch of thirty-something ex-campers who are invited back to camp by the manager because he is about to close it and wants one last week with people from 'the golden era' of camp. Even though they're all grown up, married, and business men, the former campers still affect each other and their camp experiences have impacted their lives.
Camp Nowhere
Starring: Joshua Jackson, Christopher Lloyd
What would happen if Christopher Lloyd was your only counselor? You would have the summer of your life pulling crazy stunts and just having fun being a kid.
Meatballs
Starring: Bill Murray
The classic camp movie. Bill Murray as the head counselor in charge of all the CITs. There's even the troubled camper that good old Bill befriends. If you rent it, you'll be humming, "We are the CITs, so pity us..." for weeks.
Katie's Senior High Camp Video
Produced by: Katie MacKenzie
This is a special, limited release film. Only about 100 copies of this classic were ever made, and I'm lucky enough to have one! Katie is an awesome camp friend of mine, and she is a very talented film maker. She will win awards for documentaries or short films someday. Remember, I'm the one who said it first!
Camp on TV:
Salute Your Shorts
Starring: Heidi Lucas, Michael Bower, Danny Coksey
This is THE BEST camp show ever! But if you're hoping to catch it on TV sometime, tough nuggets! Nickelodeon took it off the air a long time ago (smooth move, goobers!). If that makes you blue (not sad blue, toilet bowl blue) you can always find the tapes and DVDs on ebay. There's Sponge (The bugs bite, the food bites, this whole camp bites!), Counselor Ugh (With over two semesters of sports medicine under my belt, I can tell you two are doing a fine job.), Dina (Run? For a million, I'd run. For a thousand, I'll just walk a little faster), Donkey Lips (What happened to running amok? I thought we got to run amok. I'm just standing amok!) Budnick (Roasted, toasted, and burnt to a crisp) and all the rest.
The Simpsons Kamp Krusty Episode
Starring: Bart, of course!
Most of the Simpsons episodes are great, but this one is one of my favorites. Bart and Lisa and some other regulars go to Kamp Krusty, expecting a great week. Little do they know that the camp stinks and Krusty isn't even there. When everyone's favorite washed-up Clown finally makes an appearance, Bart tells him what he thinks about the camp. A kid even has his hat eaten by a bear . . . but it was a NICE hat!
Bug Juice
A Disney show
I haven't seen it since I don't get the Disney Channel, but people tell me that this show is great and packed with Camp Romance!
Camp Candy
Starring: John Candy
My brother and I used to wake up early on Saturday morning to watch this cartoon about a camp manager (John Candy) who told stories to campers about past crazy events. The 80's may have had weird hair-dos, but no decade can ever match them in cartoons!
Camp Songs:
Summer Camp Romance
By EverybodyDuck
I typed in "Camp Romance" as a joke and the search brought me to this gem. EverybodyDuck is an AWESOME Christian band. All of their stuff is neat. Summer Camp Romance is one of my favorites though. The best part about it is that it compares a camp romance to a relationship with God. Brilliant!
Time of Your Life
By Green Day
I'm sure the band wasn't thinking about camp when they wrote this song, but the lyrics remind me of my old times at camp.
Friends
By Michael W. Smith
Okay, so it's the stereotypical, sappy tear-jerker. But once you've heard it at camp, it'll always be a camp song.
The Banana Peel Song
By Phil Kendall
This is another unknown classic, like Katie's video, that not many people have actually heard. Unless you know Phil (he's a camp friend of ours) you probably have never heard the Banana Peel Song because it's not been released for the mass media as of yet. But, trust me, it's a fun camp song about how quickly camp friendships form. Phil's band (Shark Sandwich) have two awesome CDs out, but the song isn't on either one. Maybe the next one???
You can probably get the first two CDs and find out more about Shark Sandwich here.
Pharaoh, Pharaoh and Rise and Shine
By: People who want to torture camp counselors
Yeah. That's all I have to say about that.