Sleepaway Girls - Hardcover

Jen Calonita was never officially a sleepaway girl, but she was a camp counselor near her home on New York's Long Island. She had the rather uncool position of computer class counselor (It was the last position open and she really wanted to work there!), but she swears it was worth taking the lame title just to be among the dreamy boy counselors at her camp. Over the past eight years, as a Senior Editor at Teen People and a journalist for Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, and Marie Claire, Jen Calonita has interviewed everyone from Zac Effron to Justin Timberlake

Jen's fifth Secrets novel, Broadway Lights, pubs in March 2010, and second standalone novel, Reality Check, about teen reality show stars, will pub May 2010.

After her best friend attaches herself to Samantha’s first boyfriend, Sam is determined to spend her summer elsewhere. She ends up as a counselor-in-training at Whispering Pines, where she gets to participate in all camp activities while assisting the counselors with the younger campers. By the end of the summer, Sam acquires an arch-enemy, as well as three best buds (the Sleepaway Girls) and a gorgeous boyfriend. Calonita offers a quintessential feel-good read, from Sam’s earliest crush on the camp’s gorgeous bad boy to her gradual realization that good men are the best boyfriends; from her initial jealous encounter with the camp director’s daughter to their forced, uneasy truce; and from her early video postcards back home to her ultimate Sleepaway Girls testament to the camp season. The picture-perfect setting, the sweet little kids, the seductive freedom from parents, and the lure of adult-like responsibility make this the perfect read-alike to suggest to fans of Ann Brashares’ Traveling Pants series. Grades 7-10. --Frances Bradburn