Bookstores' Summer Camps Offer Fun for Young Readers

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This summer, at Harleysville Books and BookPeople, young bibliophiles get to be the story. Kids responded so positively to events and readings at these stores that both have developed summer programs that regularly sell out and raise revenue. Here, BTW talks with Harleysville owner Shelly Plumb and BookPeople Children's Outreach Coordinator Topher Bradfield to get a primer on literary summer camp.

Harleysville Books

Shelly Plumb, owner of Harleysville Books in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, described the store's That Was Then, This Is Now American Girl Summer Camp: "The girls are learning about four different American Girl characters and then end the week with a PJ Party American Girl Style. They are invited to bring their American Girl dolls to share. The crafts and activities include a Harleysville Books T-shirt that the campers decorate in the 1970s style, money games, and friendship journals. We provide snacks and drinks for a mid-morning break."

This is the second year that Harleysville is offering an American Girl camp, which has four sessions and runs from 9:00 a.m. to noon five days a week throughout July and August. Each session is open to a maximum of 10 girls.

Last year the store partnered with their school district's summer camp program. While enrollment was good, said Plumb, she didn't have control over operations. This year, Plumb decided to run the camps at the store. "I wanted to bring the traffic into the bookstore, and I like running programs where other customers see various programs going on," she said. "It creates interest and a buzz when they see fun stuff happening."

Plumb considers a literary camp a smart investment for the bookstore. "It is a good way to bring in other members of the community. It's a good way to drive traffic to the store -- 10 girls and their moms show up every day for a week. Almost everyone has bought something in addition to attending the camp. The camps themselves were priced based on supply costs and expenses, and the registrations are generating some revenue for us...."

The fee of $110 covers the entire cost of the camp, including project supplies. Plum said that she looks to use products sold at the store to create interest. "For example, the girls decorate heart boxes in which to keep special keepsakes. The heart boxes are by Melissa & Doug, and we carry a good selection of their products. The idea is if they get a chance to try it, they will buy it."

To teach the camps, Plum hired two elementary school teachers, who are also customers and members of the store's book club. Plum designed the camps herself and prepared the activities, and has store staff on hand for any logistical issues or needs. Parents leave contact numbers and sign their daughters in and out each day.

The camps grew out of Harleysville Books free American Girl programs. "American Girl products are a good seller for us," said Plum. "We have offered free doll drawings and have drawn in 60-plus girls for some of our American Girl parties. These types of events and programs are what we excel at, so it was a natural thing to enhance."

The transition from one-hour events to weeklong summer camps went well, she said. "We haven't seen any significant glitches. We have samples of all of the crafts so we're sure they work."

Although some of the store's American Girl programs are free, charging a fee for the camp creates a value for the customers, said Plum. "But, with that value, we take extra care to create quality activities. It takes a little more work on our part, but when we use what is around us, products we sell in the store, it's another way for us to highlight our individuality and our products."

BookPeople

In 2006, after presenting a reading of The Sea of Monsters (Rick Riordan, Miramax) at BookPeople in Austin, Texas, Topher Bradfield, BookPeople children's outreach coordinator, asked the kids: "Wouldn't it be cool if [the book's] Camp Half-Blood were real?" he said, "They all looked at me as if I'd sprouted a second head and said, 'Yeah, it would be cool.'" Four months later BookPeople launched its first Literary Camp.

Camp Half-Blood sold out its five sessions, which run throughout the summer. Each five-day session is open to 75 kids ages 9 to 13. The camp fee is $350, and the hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Camp Half-Blood bases its program on Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. Camp activities include archery, Lava Wall Training, and chariot games. Each camp has a story line that makes connections between the books, history, myth, and current events.

"Our Literary Camps recreate the worlds of popular children's books," said Bradfield. "We never seek to replicate the stories in the books as the kids have completely imagined the characters and situations. Instead we open an Austin branch of Camp Half-Blood.... This way the kids coming into the camps get to be their own character, watching their story unfold over the course of the week. We use actors, costuming, props, set design, and site-specific locations for our camps." As opposed to the American Girl camps at Harleysville, BookPeople's camps are off-site, primarily at state parks.

Rather than use store staff, Camp Half-Blood hires interns and local schoolteachers as CIT's and counselors, and pays for training and CPR/First Aid certifications. The camp is covered under the store's Liability insurance that is normally applied to offsite bookstore functions.

Bradfield said that the first year had its share of difficulties. "I was forced to deal with a lot of logistical problems like location fees, camp size, cost, story, author involvement, publisher involvement, food, insurance, first aid and CPR, employees, mailing lists, e-mailing lists, and generating rules and regulations for camp that meet state guidelines...."

Now the primary challenges are sticking to the budget and maintaining frequent communication. "The end of each day our entire staff meets to discuss what worked and what didn't. I'm quick to cut people and programs that don't work out. The campers' time is too brief to let people and situations get in the way of campers enjoying their time with us."

The hard work has paid off. Sessions sell out quickly, 20 percent of campers return, and many age out of the program. The camp has also generated support from Rick Riordan and Disney Hyperion. "Without them, none of what I'm doing now would be possible," said Bradfield, who added that Riordan has been a "huge supporter" of the program, visiting the camp almost every year (even on his birthday) and reviewing storylines.

"The Literary Camp program is a good source of revenue for us," reported Bradfield. "The camps will be their most profitable this year. Our spaces fill up in days. I would suggest the Literary Camp idea to any bookstore that has the energy, time, and passion for it. It takes a lot of all three, but boy is it worth it. When you see it in the kids faces -- that willing suspension of disbelief -- you'll know you're doing something right." --Karen Schechner