It’s late June, which is well past the time by which my kids’ summer camp would ordinarily have started – but alas, no camp this year.  Instead of tie-dyeing t-shirts with their friends and indulging in “Ice Cream Wednesday” and “Free Swim Friday” every week, they’re knocking around Camp Corona, a.k.a. the house.  Although we are planning a backyard camp-out sometime this summer (or maybe more than one) the traditional camp experience is not to be this year.  Which is sad!  I have fond memories from my own camp days, and my kids have absolutely loved the camp they’ve attended for the past few years.

If you’re in the same position, confronting a campless summer – and that’s most of us, right? whether we’re parents or just working adults with a tragic lack of summer camp fun in our lives – maybe I can help.  If we can’t go back to summer camp in person (either because of the pandemic or because, you know, we’re grown-ups) we can indulge in a little bit of nostalgia via comics and graphic novels, quite a few of which seem to be set at summer camps.  It’s not surprising, right?  Between the natural settings – which make for excellent art – and the potential for drama and shenanigans whenever a bunch of kids are thrown together, it’s a no-brainer.  Here are three that I’ve enjoyed…

First of all, no summer-camp-comics booklist would be complete without Lumberjanes.  The BOOM Studios comic series has been going strong for years and has expanded to include graphic novels, a YA/middle grade novel series, a crossover with Gotham Academy and a few fun standalones (like a summer camp songbook!).  The series focuses on five friends – Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley – and their adventures punching mythical monsters and dodging their rule-abiding counselor, Jen (who does loosen up) during very eventful summers at Miss Quinzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for hard-core lady-types.  It’s a wonderful, affirming, welcoming series – the characters come in all shapes and sizes, skin colors, sexual orientations and gender identities, and they love and support each other fiercely while also arm-wrestling statues and punching giant river monsters.  In the first two volumes alone there are anagrams, the Fibonacci sequence, Greek gods, ancient monsters, capture the flag, velociraptors, and pop culture references galore.  I want to go to Lumberjanes camp…

If you’re looking for a more realistic graphic novel take on the summer camp experience, Honor Girl is an incredible memoir exploring friendship and deeper feelings during one eventful summer.  The author, Maggie Thrash, writes of her experience developing feelings for one of her counselors at an all-girls camp in Appalachia, and it’s a sensitive and moving read.  There are hikes, late nights, and lots of suspense – will Maggie summon the courage to share her feelings, and will they be reciprocated?  And if they are, how will her very conservative camp react?  I read this several years ago, when I was just getting into graphic novels and memoirs, and I couldn’t put it down – between the gorgeous panels of artwork and the beautiful coming-of-age story and awakening, it was absolutely wonderful.

For another fitting-in-at-camp reading experience – albeit one tailored to a younger audience – Vera Brosgol’s Be Prepared is a total delight.  Vera is a young girl growing up in suburbia, but very much on the outside looking in.  Her family, headed by a single mother, lives paycheck-to-paycheck, always just one step ahead of financial disaster, and clinging to their Russian heritage for comfort and connection – which doesn’t help Vera fit in with the wealthy, spoiled girls in her class.  Vera craves two things – a (loosely disguised) American Girl doll, and the chance to go to summer camp.  The doll is never going to happen, but Vera’s mother scrimps and saves to send Vera and her brother to a summer camp for the children of Russian immigrants.  Vera is overjoyed, thinking this is a place where she can finally fit in.  But camp has quite a few surprises in store.  I expected to love this – after all, I first heard of it through Colin Meloy‘s Instagram stories, so, of course – and I did love it.  Vera’s good heart and sweet soul shine through, and you can’t help but feel confident that they’ll win her true friendship in the end.

My summers at Camp Little Notch in the Adirondacks were not nearly as eventful as Lumberjanes camp, but camp was still a formative experience for me!  To this day, I sing campfire songs to my kids as I put them to bed at night, and I dream of taking Steve and the kids there for one of their family camp weekends.  This summer is not to be – maybe next year? – so in the meantime, I’m shopping for tents at REI and backyard fire pits at Lowe’s, reviewing my Little Notch songbook so that we can sing along while we toast s’mores in the backyard, and reading my Lumberjanes.

Do you relive your summer camp experiences through graphic novels?  Am I missing any good ones?