About Us

I’m Topher Bradfield, Children’s Outreach Coordinator and Camp Director for BookPeople the largest independent bookstore in Texas. I began Camp Half-Blood in the summer of 2006 after having a group of enthusiastic Percy Jackson fans ask me, “Wouldn’t it be cool to go to Camp Half-Blood for real?”

Four years later we’ve gone from hosting one session of Camp Half-Blood to the numerous literary camps throughout the year. In 2012 Lucasfilm approved us for our newest, and most exciting camp: Star Wars: Clone Wars Jedi Training Camp.

My goal for the Jedi Training Camp at that time was a straightforward one: bring the Star Wars: Clone Wars era book series to life. Although most people primarily knew Star Wars from the movies and Clone Wars cartoon series, there are some great novels that take place in the Star Wars universe.  We set about bringing these to life while making meaningful connections between history, mythology, literature, art, science, sports, language and rampant creativity. Oh yeah, light saber training and learning the ways of the force were pretty fun too.

We had and continue to have an amazing family of councilors and educators, also huge Star Wars, who return year after year to be a part of all of our camps.

When you combine this with support from  the publisher, Penguin Books, DK books, The 501st, The Rebel Legion and BookPeople, there isn’t much we can’t bring to life. This is the kind of camping community we love – everyone with a vested interest in continuing to find new ways to make reading the adventure we all know it can be.

I hope to see you and your Youngling or Initiate this summer,

Topher Bradfield