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P.S. I Hate It Here!: Kids' Letters from Camp
For every parent who’s ever received a letter from a homesick child or anybody who’s ever written their parents with crazy requests from their bunk , P.S. I Hate It Kids’ Letters From Camp will delight with hilarious and heartwarming real-life letters.
In the bestselling tradition of nostalgic looks at classic rites of passage, such as Camp Camp and Bar Mitzvah Disco , P.S. I Hate It Here : Kids’ Letters from Camp captures a childhood experience shared by millions. This collection of real letters written by children ages eight to sixteen to their parents about their adventures at summer camp are laugh-out-loud funny and will have readers reminiscing about their own camp days.
More than 150 letters cover all the imaginable scenarios of sleep away camp, from acing the cabin lice inspection, to rowing in the “ricotta” race, to breaking the bad news about a retainer lost in the wilderness. These letters reveal that kids are wittier and more sophisticated than we might assume, and that the experience of being away from home for the first time creates hilarious and lasting memories.
Inspired by her daughter's "melodramatic rants" from camp, Diane Falanga collected 150 hilarious, poignant letters from kids 8-16 ... Read it and remember.
- People Magazine
Whether your kid is in camp or you cherish your own memories of s'mores and Color Wars, you'll get a kick out of P.S. I Hate It Here! , a book of real-life, laugh-out-loud letters from camp.
- Redbook Magazine
Kids just left for sleepaway camp? See how their letters from home measure up to the humorous missives in the new book "P.S. I Hate It Kids' Letters From Camp" by Diane Falanga, a collection of more than 150 real letters.
- Newsday
'P.S. I Hate It Here' compiles notes home from camp with love - a handsome, actually quite beautiful, little book.
- Chicago Tribune
Trust me when I tell you that not only will your kids get a kick out of the amazingly funny letters contained in this book, you and your friends will too.
- Chicago Parent Magazine
This collection of kids' actual letters home brings back all the hilarity and homesickness of sleepaway camp. Each image displays children's creative spelling, their pleading to be picked up or for permission to stay "just two more weeks." Parents and seasoned campers will enjoy reading this collection and laughing at (or commiserating with) these familiar "I hate it here! The letter before this about me starting to have fun was not true ..."
- San Diego Family Magazine
In the bestselling tradition of nostalgic looks at classic rites of passage, such as Camp Camp and Bar Mitzvah Disco , P.S. I Hate It Here : Kids’ Letters from Camp captures a childhood experience shared by millions. This collection of real letters written by children ages eight to sixteen to their parents about their adventures at summer camp are laugh-out-loud funny and will have readers reminiscing about their own camp days.
More than 150 letters cover all the imaginable scenarios of sleep away camp, from acing the cabin lice inspection, to rowing in the “ricotta” race, to breaking the bad news about a retainer lost in the wilderness. These letters reveal that kids are wittier and more sophisticated than we might assume, and that the experience of being away from home for the first time creates hilarious and lasting memories.
Inspired by her daughter's "melodramatic rants" from camp, Diane Falanga collected 150 hilarious, poignant letters from kids 8-16 ... Read it and remember.
- People Magazine
Whether your kid is in camp or you cherish your own memories of s'mores and Color Wars, you'll get a kick out of P.S. I Hate It Here! , a book of real-life, laugh-out-loud letters from camp.
- Redbook Magazine
Kids just left for sleepaway camp? See how their letters from home measure up to the humorous missives in the new book "P.S. I Hate It Kids' Letters From Camp" by Diane Falanga, a collection of more than 150 real letters.
- Newsday
'P.S. I Hate It Here' compiles notes home from camp with love - a handsome, actually quite beautiful, little book.
- Chicago Tribune
Trust me when I tell you that not only will your kids get a kick out of the amazingly funny letters contained in this book, you and your friends will too.
- Chicago Parent Magazine
This collection of kids' actual letters home brings back all the hilarity and homesickness of sleepaway camp. Each image displays children's creative spelling, their pleading to be picked up or for permission to stay "just two more weeks." Parents and seasoned campers will enjoy reading this collection and laughing at (or commiserating with) these familiar "I hate it here! The letter before this about me starting to have fun was not true ..."
- San Diego Family Magazine
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
31 people are currently reading
881 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews
March 28, 2016
Kids say (or write) the darnedest things.
I loved reading all these letters kids wrote to their parents. Their little minds are so imaginative, creative and focused on obtaining more candy.
Some kids were loving camp and others literally tried to leave, got caught and wrote their parents to tell them about it.
This is a great book to open whenever you need a bit of a chuckle. Not all letters are brilliantly hilarious, but there is enough to enjoy reading the letters.
The only complaint I had was that since the letters were copies from the originals, some were difficult to read. I get why it was printed this way, but perhaps it would have helped to have them transcribed so you aren't squinting and trying to figure out what the kids with bad or small handwriting said. It takes out some of the enjoyment.
I loved reading all these letters kids wrote to their parents. Their little minds are so imaginative, creative and focused on obtaining more candy.
Some kids were loving camp and others literally tried to leave, got caught and wrote their parents to tell them about it.
This is a great book to open whenever you need a bit of a chuckle. Not all letters are brilliantly hilarious, but there is enough to enjoy reading the letters.
The only complaint I had was that since the letters were copies from the originals, some were difficult to read. I get why it was printed this way, but perhaps it would have helped to have them transcribed so you aren't squinting and trying to figure out what the kids with bad or small handwriting said. It takes out some of the enjoyment.
July 14, 2012
P.S. I Hate it Here is a collection of children's letters home from summer camp. The best letter, by far, is the first one. I'm so glad that one was first, because it made me laugh ridiculously hard and made me want to continue reading. Many of the letters contain information about what the kids did at camp, what their friends said, or are just letters wanting to know what's going on back home. There are a few letters in here that weren't even remotely entertaining, though. An example is one letter in which a child writes something to the equivalent of, "How are you? How's mom? How's Chuck? How's Sparky? How are the fish? OK, BYE!" I assume including that is to demonstrate how kids can have that crazy stream of consciousness thought and think that other people will get it, but letters like those are just filler.
One issue: In the edition I have (the Kindle version), the books is made up of scanned copies of these letters. Some of them are so hard to read, since the letters can be quite small and are in children's handwriting. I do wish the book had transcriptions for some of the letters, even if they are really short.
This book is probably more suited to being a fun coffee table book or, dare I say it, a bathroom book that you flip through when you've got a little time on your hands, but not so much time that you want to read a novel or even a story.
One issue: In the edition I have (the Kindle version), the books is made up of scanned copies of these letters. Some of them are so hard to read, since the letters can be quite small and are in children's handwriting. I do wish the book had transcriptions for some of the letters, even if they are really short.
This book is probably more suited to being a fun coffee table book or, dare I say it, a bathroom book that you flip through when you've got a little time on your hands, but not so much time that you want to read a novel or even a story.
April 9, 2012
This is a compilation of actual letters kids sent home from camp. Unfortunately, I did not find them to be as hilarious as promised, and was disappointed by how short the book was given how many kids have written home letters from camp over the years. The letters were also done in the hand of the writer (or were made to look like they were) and I had some difficulty reading the terrible handwriting of some of these campers. There were a few laughs but otherwise I didn't think this book was worth the price.
September 11, 2022
I love an epistolary novel because I'm just nosey enough for that but books like these are such a treat. To read actual letters from actual people and be left with no idea how their situation turned out...it's almost bittersweet. My favorite collection of letters was a book of love letters. Who doesn't love love letters?
This is a fun little book of letters sent from kids at camp to their parents or siblings that I read in under an hour. Written by kids means the handwriting can be very hard to read at times although, one or two kids, I can tell will have better penmanship than most adults 😂
And kids do say the darnest things. I gasped everytime a kid casually wrote a curse word and rolled my eyes when (a lot) of kids wrote a specific list of all the candy they wanted mom and dad to send. The funniest has to be the "pick me up!" letters.
This is a fun little book of letters sent from kids at camp to their parents or siblings that I read in under an hour. Written by kids means the handwriting can be very hard to read at times although, one or two kids, I can tell will have better penmanship than most adults 😂
And kids do say the darnest things. I gasped everytime a kid casually wrote a curse word and rolled my eyes when (a lot) of kids wrote a specific list of all the candy they wanted mom and dad to send. The funniest has to be the "pick me up!" letters.
May 14, 2014
I first heard about this book when the author was invited on the David Letterman Show. The excerpts read on air were quite funny and the book was not a disappointment. It took about an hour and a half to read and probably would have taken less time if the children's penmanship wasn't so horrible. The book contains actual photocopies of letters written from kids to their parents or other family members from sleepover summer camp. The book has a typed introduction and other than that, there are no lead in texts between the letters or to explain any of the letters' contents or contexts. For the most part this wasn't a problem but I did wish there was a little bit of further explanation on some of them and perhaps a little blurb about each of the kids. A few of the kids had multiple letters published in the book. Those letters were not necessarily kept together since the book was divided into about six themes. I laughed out loud often. I would recommend this book to parents, grand parents, or even anyone who's ever been off to camp as a kid.
October 9, 2010
It takes a mean, heartless person like me to laugh hysterically at childrens' weepy letters home from camp. If you hated "Shit My Dad Says" because you thought the Dad was too mean, skip this book too. The whole point is to laugh at painful/embarrassing childhood experiences. Also, I learned a fascinating fact: not having attended summer camp myself, I was shocked to learn that camp counselors force children to write letters home before they get to eat dinner. So, the best letters by far are the "Supper Letters," in which the kids write a bunch of nonsense in order to be able to eat: "This is my supper letter, i like bananas, I like bananas, i like bananas, OK this is long enough, bye."
December 31, 2011
Believe it or not...I HATED girl scout camp in Wisconsin. I know...me...lover of all things fun. I particularly like the chapter in here titled "Get me outta here!!! Written on the inside flap of an envelope was the message "I tried to run away but they caught me. Seriously". I can relate. The poor spelling, crazy requests for candy and cookies and more, and tales of camp activities are a stitch. Another book of more letters is due out in 2012. Steve told me to stop reading this one because my laughing was keeping him awake. It's that good.
June 14, 2012
This book was ok. A very quick read. The best section is the "Get Me Out of Here!" part. Some of those are hilarious! One child compares his camp to "the 100th level of hell!" I thought that was hysterical, especially for a child to write!
Most of the letters are just kind of.. meh. Maybe I'd appreciate it more if I had children or had ever been to camp.
A cute book overall. Worth reading if you're a parent or a former camper who's feeling nostalgic.
(My 2 star rating is not to say the book was bad, don't let that sway you. I'm going by the star wording, 2 stars meaning "it was ok.")
Most of the letters are just kind of.. meh. Maybe I'd appreciate it more if I had children or had ever been to camp.
A cute book overall. Worth reading if you're a parent or a former camper who's feeling nostalgic.
(My 2 star rating is not to say the book was bad, don't let that sway you. I'm going by the star wording, 2 stars meaning "it was ok.")
January 13, 2014
I can't remember where I saw this book but it seemed like a cute idea and so it's been on my Paperbackswap wishlist for a year and a half. Finally, I got it off Amazon for $1.99 + shipping.
It's an okay idea, but the cuteness palls over a quarter of the way into the book. The absolute cutest stories are talked about in the introduction so by the time you get to them, the idea isn't as fun as it could have been. I feel generous giving this two stars but since I reserve one stars for DNFs... there you have it.
It's an okay idea, but the cuteness palls over a quarter of the way into the book. The absolute cutest stories are talked about in the introduction so by the time you get to them, the idea isn't as fun as it could have been. I feel generous giving this two stars but since I reserve one stars for DNFs... there you have it.
July 22, 2010
What a funny book! This is a quick and simple read that won't take up more than 20 or 30 minutes of your time. Falanga came up with the idea to collect the letters that kids send home to their families from summer camp. All of the letters are copied in the original handwriting of the sender, complete with spelling and grammatical errors. Reading this book made me miss working with fourth grade students!
September 7, 2011
All I was thinking of is how awesome would it be to have our own Saudi children learning how to write such letters "in arabic of course" to their families and ACTUALLY having them doing it themselves !!
Some of the letters were HILARIOUS!
Umm.. Even though the idea of scanning the letters the way children wrote them is incredibly cute but I couldn't get them all for the same reason. :s
Finished the whole book in half an hour on my way home from college!
Thanks Lino :*
Some of the letters were HILARIOUS!
Umm.. Even though the idea of scanning the letters the way children wrote them is incredibly cute but I couldn't get them all for the same reason. :s
Finished the whole book in half an hour on my way home from college!
Thanks Lino :*
July 13, 2016
I thought this book would be hilarious, kids writing home about how much they hated camp and needed their parents to send candy, but it wasn't funny at all. I didn't even laugh once. Each entry appears to be the actual handwritten letter from the child, making a majority of them extremely difficult to read. A translation would have been appropriate for some of the more difficult letters, perhaps making that entry more entertaining while you try to imagine the parents deciphering the message.
October 25, 2016
1. Favorite letter: "Why haven't you sent me a letter? Everyone else has gotten at least one but I haven't. I am really worried who died? What happened? Is anything wrong? WRITE BACK!!"
2. This book is adorable, endearing, sweet, funny, and a fast read.
3. Loved the campers' drawings.
4. Some of the kids cussed in the letters to their parents. What the heck? Haha.
5. I love the inside intel of children.
2. This book is adorable, endearing, sweet, funny, and a fast read.
3. Loved the campers' drawings.
4. Some of the kids cussed in the letters to their parents. What the heck? Haha.
5. I love the inside intel of children.
September 2, 2011
I had processed this book while doing work experience. It caught my eye and made me giggle. While reading it, I got the same impression. Some letters were hard to read due to spelling or the writing, but it was authentic. Only downside was after awhile I got a little bored with the letters, specially if they weren't real funny.
December 8, 2011
Cute, but not all that funny, and very short. As a sender of many a camp-letter (I wish I still could read some of them!) and recipient of far too few as the parent, I had some moments of nostalgia, but really didn't find it as entertaining as I'd expected. Definitely only ever recommend this as a library check out!
December 23, 2011
Pretty funny concept. The book contains actual copies of the letters written, so sometimes it is hard to get through the spelling and grammatical errors and shaky handwriting. I enjoyed every section except for the actual "I hate it here" section. Some of those letters were so sad that it was a shock back to reality after laughing through the first half of the book.
May 19, 2012
Great concept and a quick read-I breezed through it in about an hour. My biggest problem was that some of the letters were difficult to read-the text was small or the kids' handwriting was so messy that I couldn't tell what they had written. Frankly, I think the "Letters to Santa" that appear in my newspaper every December are much more amusing.
July 11, 2014
Although I liked the section where the kids were asking their parents to send them things, the rest of this book was very "meh". I thought it would be a lot funnier, but mostly it was a pain trying to read the handwriting. I had the second book requested from the library, but I cancelled that request.
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March 24, 2016I know Diane so it was an easy sale. But what's not been easy are the "fights" at home over who gets to read the book. And I've never had to tell my kids... "Stop reading that book and do your homework!"
This is a sensationally entertaining read and very well timed on the eve of many departures to camp.
This is a sensationally entertaining read and very well timed on the eve of many departures to camp.
January 19, 2018
P.S. I Hate It Here was recommended to me by the Goodreads algorithm. It had given me good recs before and the premise sounded amusing; so I gave it a read. I was not all that impressed. It might prove to be more entertaining to those who have sent their offspring to camp or been the unlucky camper.
December 7, 2010
Some hysterical letters home from children stuck at (or enamored with) summer camp, but most of these examples are pretty standard kids comedy stuff. Also, very hard to read some of these letters with the younger ones' penmanship.
September 9, 2010
I never attended Summer Camp, but anyone who spent anytime away from their parents can relate. Everything that is important to you as a youth should be important to everyone, right? Including your fish?
June 29, 2012
It was okay. Half the letters were so difficult to read, which is understandable because they were the originals that the child wrote, but still, it was not that funny because I had no idea what the child was trying to say!
December 14, 2013
Cute collection of letters from children. I'd love to quote a bunch of them, but I'd hate to spoil your pleasure of the book. My favorite, though, simply said "Hey Mom, guess what?" and included a hacked-off chunk of hair.
August 10, 2012
I was excited to read this book as it was mentioned in one of my parenting mags but upon flipping through the stories, they seemed to be fabricated and the handwriting (for some of them) just looked too adultish. I guess I am skeptical these are true stories.
December 29, 2012
Get me out of here! I mean it! I really mean it! My favorites are the injury letters: my finger got smacked under a canoe, swelled extra huge then turned green. Zack the health guy put acid on it. I exploded with puss. !!!!!!!!
May 21, 2013
Our kid is going to away camp for the first time this summer, and this book was mentioned as a funny read on the topic.
It's a fun collection of letters from camp that range all over the map. Mostly pretty humorous, even when the kids say they "hate it here."
It's a fun collection of letters from camp that range all over the map. Mostly pretty humorous, even when the kids say they "hate it here."
June 2, 2016
very cute little book. the first letter is hands down the best one! i was an overly shy and nervous child and Did Not let my parents send me to camp - if they had, and if i had written letters, i imagine they'd have been distressed and betrayed enough to belong in something like this :P
May 21, 2017
An adorable collection of camp letters written by young children to their parents. The letters are in the original writings and it is sometimes difficult to make out the words because of this. This is a sweet book basically written by children about something most children enjoy - camp.
April 2, 2019
The book was okay and was a quick read. Some of the letters fro camp were hilarious! Most of them were just sweet. I don’t think the book was worth the price, though. It didn’t live up to my expectations.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews