A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever

Frazee ("Roller Coaster") salutes grandparents and slyly notes children's diversions in this breezy tale of the best week ever. After Eamon enrolls in nature camp, he spends nights with his grandparents, Bill and Pam, at their beach cottage. Eamon's friend James joins the sleepover, and although the text describes James as very sad when his mother drives away, a cartoon shows him exuberantly waving Bye! Humorous contradictions arise between the hand-lettered account (Bill handed them each a pair of binoculars and a list of birds to look for. On the way home, the boys reported their findings) and voice-bubble exchanges between the boys (Eamon, training the lenses on James: His freckles are "huge." James: Yeah, and his tongue is "gross"). Bill tries to interest the boys in a museum exhibit on penguins; the inseparable friends (To save time, Bill began calling them Jamon) show no enthusiasm yet energetically build penguins from mussel shells. Frazee's narrative resembles a tongue-in-cheek travel journal, with plenty of enticing pencil and gouache illustrations of the characters knocking about the shoreline. Like "The Hello Goodbye Window", Frazee's story celebrates casual extended-family affection, with a knowing wink at the friends' dismissal of their elders' best-laid plans. Ages 6-9. "(Mar.)" Copyright 2008 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

PreS-KJames and Eamon spend a week at Eamon's grandparents' beach house. The boys go to nature camp during the day and delight Bill and Pam (the grandparents) at night with their antics. Bill makes an earnest attempt to interest the young boys in his own hobbystudying Antarctica and penguins. He wears a penguin shirt and brings out maps and globes, but it appears that James and Eamon are not listening. Frazee brings out the typical energy of a couple of boys who may scoff at nature and seem to prefer watching TV, but it is through her artful illustrations that readers catch glimpses of just how savvy and creative these kids can be. The youngsters' circular cartoon faces are distinguishable only because of their small tufts of hairone curly, the other straight. Endpapers depict a humorous variety of drawn photos that could have been taken during the week. A penguin craft is explained on the final end flap. This intergenerational story will elicit howls of laughter and requests for repeated readings."Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA" Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

* "Frazee brings out the typical energy of a couple of boys who may scoff at nature and seem to prefer watching TV, but it is through her artful illustrations that readers catch glimpses of just how savvy and creative these kids can be. . . . This intergenerational story will elicit howls of laughter and requests for repeated readings." (starred review)