Not a Happy Camper

Set in what now seems an almost impossibly innocent time, the 1970s, this sweet tale takes a nostalgic look back at the experience of attending sleepaway camp through the eyes of a 13-year-old Jewish girl. Though this may not be quite the camp many baby boomers attended, Schneider succeeds in provoking gentle flashbacks to a simpler shared time of teenage angst and hormone surges, before cable television, all recalled in a humorous tone: "Least we won't have to hear about Watergate anymore.... I'm so sick of those hearings being on instead of Match Game ." Schneider (Life's a Stitch ) spends eight weeks in the rain-soaked Maine woods at, as she dubs it an "anti-camp," and despite the title, loves it. Unlike more structured camps for Long Island blue bloods, offering kickball, tennis, swimming and nature walks, Kin-A-Hurra operated on the haphazard wavelength of "do anything you want any time you want, unless you just want to do nothing." Activities include an overnight trip to the highest peak in Maine, provisioned with industrial-size cans of peach nectar, raw carrots and chicken parts for dinner, or shopping sprees to a local junk shop. This hands-off policy leaves plenty of time for Schneider and her bunkmates to discover boys, the outdoors and, ultimately, a little bit about themselves. (June)