5 Great Middle Grade Books About Summer Camps

While only 12% of kids in the United States attend overnight summer camp programs, it’s still a popular topic among young readers. Whether or not they attend summer camps, kids love to imagine being away from home without their parents and all the hijinks they could get up to with that newfound independence. Middle grade books about summer camps often explore friend drama, first crushes, and self-discovery. Kids solve problems without adult supervision and go on their own adventures. From a camp centered on Black history to LGBTQ+ and monster camps, these five novels explore all the drama and personal growth that can happen at summer camps. It Doesn’t Take a Genius by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Black excellence and Black joy take center stage in this delightful novel. When 13-year-old Emmett’s older brother gets a job at an exclusive Black summer camp far away from home, Emmett secretly applies for a scholarship and gets into the camp, much to his brother’s annoyance. While Emmett is known as something of a genius at his middle school, everyone excels at this summer camp, with a lot more accolades than Emmett. This summer camp is intense, and students take classes in Black excel...