Great story about summer camp

 

Crazy Moon by Lucia Greene is a book for kids ages 7 and up, but I must say, I really enjoyed it myself. Yup, it’s great to be a kid again.

The book features a young girl at her first-ever summer camp, Crazy Moon, in northern Maine. The story took me back to Camp Mechuwana, a Methodist children’s camp on Lower Narrows Pond in Winthrop that I enjoyed every year while growing up in Winthrop.

Although the Mechuwana experience didn’t include fishing, they did let me fish off the dock there, where I caught some large bass. Go figure – that’s what I remember best about the camp!

In Crazy Moon, published by North Country Press, young Madison is wary of camp at first, but by the end of her week there, wishes she could stay longer. She loved it all, from horseback riding to talent shows to swimming. She made new friends, created her own outdoor adventures, slept for the first time in a tent, and even rescued a friend who disappeared for a night.

The story moves right along and I enjoyed it sitting outside our North Woods camp. But no matter where you or your kids read this book, you will enjoy it. And maybe it will compel your kids to try a summer camp, or bring back your own wonderful memories of doing that.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.