Diane Falanga - P.S. I Still Hate It Here: More Kids Letters From Camp

By Diane Falanga If you read the original collection, P.S. I Hate It Here : Kids Letters from Camp, youll know why I jumped at the chance to select and edit more kids camp letters. And if you didnt read the first volume, theres still time! I may have one of the all-time greatest jobs: spending my time reading thousands of hilarious camp letters and sharing the best bits with anyone who will listen. Through it all, Ive developed a full-blown camp-letter addiction. I cant seem to get enough of these kids and their ability to say it like it is. Some of the laugh-out-loud notes in this book were written over fifty years ago.

In the current era of computerized and digitalized everything, our kids rare, handwritten gems are cherished all the more. But no matter the year, a common thread unites them: The words are pure, the thoughts are unfiltered, and the emotions are raw and honest. These writers are sophisticated innocents, able to evoke pathos with sheer humor. The idea of compiling a book of camp letters first took root when my now teenage daughter, Bianca, was a bright-eyed, brand-new, eight-year-old camper (euphemism for homesick camp kid). Her tearful, hyperbolic first letter home, We have chores today. I am the Scraper, Sweeper and Maid, left me wracked with guilt and weepy, but also belly-laughing.

It inspired me to kick off a nationwide email chain to friends, family, and camps to look for more sidesplitting letters, hoping to spread the humorand to help homesick kids see that theyre not alone. In P.S. I Still Hate It Here, meet , working on his English at summer language camp in Milan, who describes his homesickness to his parents: I am like one shower without water and you are plumber. For those of you who enjoyed P.S. I Hate It Here , here are some quick camper updates: p. 10: The rash on Joshs P-Nus improved.

Alls great with his running, and he started saying the word eggs again. p. 11: Stanton is still alive. p. 25: Rachel outgrew her retainer. 39: More weirdly bad stuff happened to Nicki. 39: More weirdly bad stuff happened to Nicki.

But she still didnt cry. p. 73: Leslies hair grew back. Just not quite as thick. p. 86: Nick got out on bail.

As with the first volume, this second book is a collection of actual camp letters written home by kidsmost getting a taste of independence for the very first time. Please enjoy this hysterical portal into the hearts and minds of kids spending the summer away at camp. For all of you whove been in their shoes, I hope this trip down memory lane brings laughter and heartfelt memories.

Next page