★ Summer Camp Word Search
★ Summer Camp Crossword
Summer Camp Facts
Hi there, campers! This is Professor A.J. I have a PhD in awesomeness. Since this is the My Weird School summer camp special, I thought I would tell you about the history of summer camps. I’m a professor, which means I know everything.
Summer camps first started back in 1943 by this guy named Bob Camp. He had a really sunny personality, so everybody called him “Summer.” Yeah, that was his name, Bob Summer Camp.
Wait a minute, Arlo!
Oh no! Here comes the Human Homework Machine.
Arlo, you know perfectly well that there’s no such person as Bob Summer Camp. You made that up.
So what? Kids won’t know the difference. They’re not going to check the facts on this.
But I will! The truth is, the first summer camp was started in 1861, in Connecticut. It was called the Gunnery Camp, and the owners were Frederick and Abigail Gunn. They saw it as a way for kids to escape the city during the hot summer and connect with nature.
Lots more summer camps opened in the 1870s and 1880s, mostly in New England, and just for boys. Camps for girls started up in the 1890s. These days, kids can go to all different kinds of summer camps. There are camps for the arts, magic, computers, math, sports, performing arts, and even cooking. There are more than fifteen thousand summer camps in the United States, and about twenty-six million campers.
Thank you, Miss Know-It-All. But as I was saying, Bob Summer Camp—
Quiet, Arlo!
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Yvonne Mary Albright, Sarah Lewandowski-Barthel, Julie Beck, Mandy Carter Chase, Elizabeth Compton, Dave Darde, Kate Did, Janet Chaille Dietz, Jennifer Dorfberger, Reb Ecca, Jessica Edwards, Heather Fischer, Kerry Furney, Eliana Knazan Garry, Susan Ghali, Brittany Gillen, Kathleen Guinnane, Tracy Hengst, Anne Higgins, Rachel Hurley, Gwen Jones, Michele Shelly Kierman-Karver, Sarah Keesler, Christine Kirk, Amanda Leatherman, Kathleen Hanrahan Lorenzo, Joslyn Sheridan Mathison, Jillian Hutchens Mors, Anne Murray, Kimberly Nguyen, Patricia Ohanian, Jeena Kunjappu Pereira, Jean Peretzman, Jacquelynn Pleis, Erin Moss Plouzek, Hen Rasmussen, Janine Gaudette Roode, Peggy McAndrew Rush, Beth Schultz, Laura Schwartzkopf, Shannon Glass Searle, Anne Seikel, Tara Weiss Senker, Kirsten Budke Shivak, Geiza Ferreira Shulkin, Randy Steinman, Sharon Foy Swanke, Michelle Dowd Torosian, Patti Parnell Young, Erica Petersen Yuengling.
About the Author and Illustrator
Courtesy of Dan Gutman and Jim Paillot
DAN GUTMAN has written many weird books for kids. He lives with his weird wife in New York (a very weird place). You can visit him on his weird website at dangutman.com.
JIM PAILLOT lives in Arizona (another weird place) with his weird wife and two weird children. Isn’t that weird? You can visit him on his weird website at jimpaillot.com.
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Copyright
MY WEIRD SCHOOL SPECIAL: THERE’S A SKUNK IN MY BUNK! Text copyright © 2024 by Dan Gutman. Illustrations copyright © 2024 by Jim Paillot. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2024 by Jim Paillot
Cover design by Sidney Duong
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023943869
Digital Edition JUNE 2024 ISBN: 978-0-06-325722-1
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-325720-7
ISBN 978-0-06-325720-7 (pbk bdg) — ISBN 978-0-06-325721-4 (trade bdg)
24 25 26 27 28 PC/CWR 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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