Two black girls from NYC (I believe) have an opportunity to go to summer camp, maybe upstate? Catskills? Adirondacks? One loves it, the other misses the city. They are best friends. Book describes city life well: hydrants on to cool the girls off, the cool of the apartment, waiting for mom to get home, making lunch, very detailed as I recall, which makes sense given how much I love richly described characters. Then off to camp where I believe the girls drift apart a bit. I loved it and would love to know the title.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
This sounds so familiar! I wonder if I am mixing it up with another book about a black city girl who unwillingly goes off to summer camp (maybe with her cheerful younger sister?). When she hugs and kisses her mother goodbye, another girl looks at her with hate and becomes her nemesis at camp. It seems like a clear case of racism, until the end reveals that the white girl is jealous that the black girl has a loving mother who hugged her goodbye tightly, while the white girl’s mother is absent due to divorce. The two girls become friends at the end of camp.
Possibly Mary Stolz: A Wonderful Terrible Time.
I remember reading A Wonderful Terrible Time. I wonder if my description above was just a subplot of that book?
This is it-A Wonderful Terrible Time! Thank you SOOO much Ann! And Amy, who might be a fellow lover of this book. I am the one who posed the Stumper and can hardly believe it happened this quickly-thank you Stumper service and Ann for nailing it. Yay!
Thank you Ann for solving the mystery! And Amy as a potential lover of the same book. I just ordered it and can hardly wait to share with daughter, and reread it myself of course. 🙂
The other book that Amy remembers is “Josie on her Own,” by Gunilla Norris.
Mary, thank you! I recognized the cover to “Josie on her Own” immediately! I know I read “A Wonderful Terrible Time” also, back in the day. These books feel like old friends. I love rediscovering them.
Is this the story where the girl comes home from camp and her mother has bought her a goldfish bowl??