Summer camp. It's an experience we remember vividly: a time of first kisses and bittersweet heartbreaks, food fights and cabin raids, and endless days of sun and fun away from the prying eyes of parents-until now. After years of working in intensive care units caring for critically ill adults, Tilda Shalof turns her attention, as both parent and nurse, to children at summer camp. Camp Nurse is an insider's view of this hidden world. Throughout Shalof's six summers at camp, kids troop through the infirmary with a variety of ordinary-as well as some quite extraordinary-complaints. Shalof describes how she assesses, diagnoses, and treats them all, from pesky lice infestations and scratchy bug bites to broken arms and severe accidents. But Shalof finds that more often than not, she is also treating psychological maladies. She befriends kids from families going through bitter divorces, girls with eating disorders, a camper who attempts suicide in a desperate plea to be sent home, a teenager grieving the recent death of his father.

Whatever the problem or concern, it is to the camp nurse that kids-and counselors-go for help. Full of good humor and lots of laughs, the stories in Camp Nurse are wildly entertaining and will satisfy the twinges of nostalgia of anyone who has fond memories of camp. Book jacket.