Slept Away by Julie Kraut

Laney Parker is a city girl psyched for a summer of tanning, gossiping, and partying with her BFF Kennedy. But when Laney’s mother forcefully ships her off to sleepaway camp in Middle of Nowhere, Pennsylvania of all places, it becomes apparent that you can take the girl out of the Upper East Side, but you can’t take the Upper East Side out of the girl. Laney has no idea how she’s supposed to deal with sex segregation, athletic shorts, and actual sports in place of air conditioning, caffeine, and waking up post-noon. But once denied access to the real world via iPhone, Laney must make the best of the loserdom she’s allotted. But as the summer progresses, Laney begins to see that camp might not be the total nightmares she assumed it to be.

Slept Away is the classic tale of spoiled girl living the life forced out of her element to learn that there’s more to life than just physical stuff. There isn’t anything too original about Kraut’s version of this tale unless you count her remarkable skill for incorporating pop culture allusions and/or sarcasm on nearly every page. While this is a good starter for the novel, it quickly gets old and a little annoying. This whole novel has an undertone of immaturity running through it that makes me question the value and purpose of this novel. I even doubt the permanence of Laney’s realization that people are more than what they look like post-camp since Laney seems the type easily molded by circumstance and location. Three were times that I felt true sympathy for Laney’s plight, but I was more disturbed by the extent of her self-pity and the silliness of how big a deal Laney was making over having to attend camp. On the surface though, Slept Away is a cute and slightly enjoyable summer read.

Slept Away may appeal to younger teen readers who also enjoyed Alive and Well in Prague, New York by Daphne Grab, The Elite series by Jennifer Banash, and The Clique series by Lisi Harrison. This novel is cute enough, but I could not recommend it to readers looking for something more meaningful.

Rating: 3.25

Review copy from publisher Random House