My son, who is attending sleepaway camp
for four weeks, sent an urgent note that he finished a book we’d given him and
that he needs to get his hands on the sequel.
Nothing makes me happier than to see my two children show a hunger and love
for books. They both enjoy reading.
I ran to my local bookstore, by work in
the city, but they didn’t have Cherub: Mission 2 in stock. But they tracked it down for me at another
B&N store, just 30 blocks away (a mile and a half). I took a nice walk at lunchtime and retrieved
the book. Off it went, into the eager
and awaiting arms of a 10- ½-year-old boy.
His camp is like many contemporary
camps. They don’t allow electronic
devices, so no cellphones, iPod touches, or even iPads. If he wants to read, he does it the old
fashioned way – with paper books. There’s also no television and no videogames. That’s how it should be.
My seven-year-old daughter enjoys going
to a day-camp. Unfortunately, she got
lice in the second week, along with two other girls. After a visit to the local “lice lady” - yes,
there’s such a person – and $250 later – she was in good spirits. It turned out on the same day she got
kooties, my son got stung in the head by a bee.
I guess when you play all day in nature, things are going to happen.
Camps are actually a great market for
authors and publishers. Millions of
kids, like my son, go away for at least several weeks every summer. Many would love to read a book. Camps should make a visit to their local
bookstore so kids can buy up what they want.
Make it a field trip. Why not?
Camps are great for the post office,
too. Though many camps have an email
system where kids write letters by hand and camps scan them back home, kids also
send letters by snail mail. Parents send
care packages in return.
His camp doesn’t allow junk food to be
sent but he figured out a scheme to resell individual pieces of gum that he
smuggled into camp. He brought about $15
worth of gum that he thinks he can get over 50 bucks for. I haven’t seen this much daring
entrepreneurship since watching Risky Business with Tom Cruise.
I never went to summer camp.
I was raised in Brooklyn in the late 70s and early 80s and camp for me was a pick-up stickball game at the schoolyard or a round of paddleball at the Avenue M park in Midwood. I’d spend hours and hours playing ball – no counselors, no coaches, no parents. It was kid justice, where a Lord of the Flies mentality rules. Most kids got along, but sometimes the bully comes out when people are competing.
I was raised in Brooklyn in the late 70s and early 80s and camp for me was a pick-up stickball game at the schoolyard or a round of paddleball at the Avenue M park in Midwood. I’d spend hours and hours playing ball – no counselors, no coaches, no parents. It was kid justice, where a Lord of the Flies mentality rules. Most kids got along, but sometimes the bully comes out when people are competing.
I don’t remember reading any books the
summer I was 10 my son’s age. I just was just starting to discover newspapers and magazines.
I read Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, Sports Illustrated,
daily newspapers, and anything at that time I could get my hands on. Sporting News and Popular Mechanic became my
favorites. TV Guide, too.
It’s great to raise a generation of
voracious readers. Reading is what will
get society on the right track. When
information is shared and ideas are exchanged, our nation will flourish. But we have to get millions of illiterates
help – and we have to get young people (and older) to spend time away from
screens and focused on books.
At camp, that kind of world is going
on. Amen.
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