Pack-aging for ‘Camp’ Breaking it down

“Camp Camp” authors Roger Bennett and Jules Shell, with the help of photo editors and graphic designers, narrowed down the material in their book to a narrative arc:

SECTION 1. GOING TO CAMP

The book begins with photos in which kids and parents weepily part, and includes one girl’s loopily handwritten list of all the clothes she is bringing: (“Green Izod, green and blue Polo, white ox blouse, lavender Izod ... ”).

SECTION 2. BEING AT CAMP

From there it explores “the girls’ bunk” (the endless beautifying; the one girl who can lie on her back and grasp a tissue with her feet and blow her nose; a two-page “Purity Test” survey administered frequently — “Have you ever ... Been on a date past 4:00 a.m.? ... Necked for more than two (2) hours consecutively?”) and “the boys’ bunk” (sleep at your own peril). Every part of life at camp gets its own chapter: athletics, arts and crafts, talent shows, letters home (and packages from Mom); it then deals with counselors, camp directors, camp food, camp love, campfires.

SECTION 3. GOING BACK INTO THE WORLD HAVING BEEN SLIGHTLY (OR PROFOUNDLY) CHANGED BY CAMP.

Finally, it is time to leave camp, in tearful, melodramatic candlelight ceremonies. Then the buses pull away, heading home. They are still pulling away, but never really leaving.

Source: Washington Post