Summer camps

Generation X's seminal event? Summer camp.

"Summer camp is really the story of our generation -- who we are and how we got this way," said Roger Bennett, co-author of "Camp Camp: Where Fantasy Island Meets Lord of the Flies" (Crown, $24.95). The book is a collection of camp photos, memorabilia and memories from Gen Xers around the country.

Bennett, who brought us the 2005 bestseller "Bar Mitzvah Disco," is one of two authors this summer mining food fights, color war and panty raids for material.

"With the 'Bar Mitzvah' book, it was exploring how one night, boys and girls are arbitrarily told they are men and women and they go through the agony in front of all their friends and family," he said. "The camp experience is the next logical step. It's where kids come of age with their parents taken out of the equation."

Swampscott native Jamie Denbo, 34, couldn't resist sharing her summer stories to "Camp Camp."

"I submitted my photos because I have a lot of them, and that's just way too much documentation of big bangs and Esprit clothing to be in a house alone," said Denbo, an actress who lives in Los Angeles. "Blame the Kodak disc camera for the terrible exposure."

Bennett, 37, who received more than 80,000 submissions for "Camp Camp," said he was struck by the "sheer scale and size" of the audience who wanted to relive summer camp.

"On the surface, these are seemingly content accountants, doctors, professionals," he said. "But inside, they are waiting for the color war cannon to go off."

Of course, not everyone has warm and fuzzy memories of camp. Author Stephanie Klein's camp experience had all the typical summer fare -- fight songs, swim tests, daddy long legs clinging to the shower stall -- but there was one big difference: She was there to lose weight.

"It was just like any camp where you'd go camping and hiking up this big hill called Blueberry Hill," said Klein, author of "Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp" (William Morrow, $24.95). "The difference was all we wanted to do was eat the blueberries."

Klein, who spent four summers at weight-loss camp, said writing about camp and body image was therapeutic.

"It's not a weight loss memoir about trying different diets or losing half my body weight," she said. "It's about an adult trying to deal with overcoming a childhood defined by weight loss."

Bennett, a native of Liverpool, England, who went to Camp Kingswood in Maine, said whatever Gen X's camp memories might be, they should be cherished, because the simpler era of bug juice and first kisses is over.

"Camp has evolved," he said. "It's much more niched than ever. Kids go for a shorter period and thanks to the Internet, parents are way more involved in day-to-day lives."