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Summary
Summary
Snap!
With their new cameras
Snap!
a brother and sister
Snap!
take pictures of their vacation.
But when they look at their photographs they see:
1. The back of Dad's head2. Feet
3. A container of noodles
That's it
Does 1 + 2 + 3 = summer vacation
What about how it felt to swim in the lake What about the stories their cousins told and the taste of a just-invented strawberry and whipped cream dessert
For those memories--the memories of summer and the memories of family that mean the most--they need to look someplace else. Someplace deep inside. Someplace permanent.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Newbery Medalist Perkins's (Criss Cross) latest picture book centers on a child's summer visit to her grandparents' farm, though drolly humorous moments throughout will ring familiar to anyone who has embarked on a family vacation. As they set out, the narrator's mother gives her and her brother instant cameras and notebooks to hold the photos they take. The sights from the car are hardly scintillating ("Once in a while there was a bridge or some cows"), but the narrator busies herself imagining an elaborate motel she'd like to own someday. Arriving at the farm, "Our dad saw happy memories everywhere he looked. All we could see was old furniture and dust." A game of badminton with warped racquets is interrupted by rain that lingers for days. When at last the sun shines, the family, after one thwarted attempt, finally finds a place to swim-and then a storm strikes. Though Perkins seems to be setting readers up for a dramatic about-face in the narrator's attitude, the gaggle of extended family that descends for a relative's memorial service may strike some as too little too late. But for the narrator, this interlude is sufficiently rewarding that she doesn't feel the need to snap photos ("it's hard to take a picture of a story someone tells, or what it feels like when you're rolling down a hill or falling asleep in a house full of cousins and uncles and aunts"). In the warmhearted conclusion to this homespun tale, which Perkins has illustrated with brightly hued, detailed pen and ink and watercolor pictures, she wisely observes, "those kinds of pictures I can keep in my mind." Ages 5-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) With the insight, warm humor, and close observation we've come to expect, Perkins tells the story of a family's summer vacation. ""This is going to be so fun,"" the young narrator thinks as she heads for the car, en route to the old family farm. But life doesn't always live up to expectations, and her camera prints out pictures of disappointment: a cracked, empty motel pool; at the farm, days of unceasing rain, a path that used to lead to the lake but doesn't anymore. But then relatives gather for a family reunion; suddenly there is a gang of cousins with whom to explore, climb trees, and invent new desserts, and she is too busy to take photos. Anyway, she thinks, ""It's hard to take a picture of...what it feels like when you're rolling down a hill or falling asleep in a house full of cousins...but those kinds of pictures I can keep in my mind."" Perkins is exhilaratingly free in her approach to the picture book form (The Broken Cat, rev. 5/02; Snow Music, rev. 11/03); here she incorporates the girl's snapshots and notebook entries into both text and art (lush but down-to-earth watercolors), makes maps funny, and plays with type placement where appropriate. And throughout there is an attention to the details of childhood that marks all of Perkins's work, even unto how kids really wear their seatbelts on long drives. Copryight 2007 of The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Many books idealize the joys of family vacations. Here's a more honest look at the way those trips make memories. Mom, Dad, son, and daughter, who narrates, have high hopes about a trip to the old family farm. But the drive is long and boring, and when they arrive, Dad sees happy memories, while everyone else sees old furniture and dust. It's downhill from there. Rain falls and falls some more. The local lake is hard to find, and rain ruins that outing, too. A memorial service for their dad's recently deceased great-aunt seems as though it will be the worst part of the trip, but a funny thing happens. Family appears; stories are swapped; bonds are forged. In the beginning, the narrator's poorly shot photographs, always of meaningless things, provide a kind of visual hook. After the extended family arrives, the girl doesn't take pictures. She's too busy making memories, the kind I can keep in my mind. Perkins, who won the Newbery Medal for Criss-Cross (2005), shows she is equally adept at illustration. Using many overhead perspectives and with an eye for small details, she offers watercolors that beautifully capture all that is real about family vacations: boredom, disappointment, fun, and love. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2007 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-This deceptively simple, thoroughly engaging story is a child's account of her family's cross-country road trip (complete with hand-drawn maps) to visit the old homestead. Before they embark, Mom gives her two children instant cameras and notebooks to document their travels. But the kids quickly discover that what they record on film has little in common with what they actually experience. The snapshot of the back of Dad's head as he drives, for instance, fails in every way to capture the way it felt to be in the car with him at that moment. Photos of grass, a mountain, the sky, or cropped feet in no way reflect the endless days of rain, the secret swimming spot, or activities in the lake. The youngsters also find that on the very best days-when the large extended family gathers at the farm-they are just too busy to take any pictures. Perkins's colorful, line-intensive illustrations incorporate a lot of detailed thought bubbles and plenty of peeks inside the narrator's notebook. Vibrant watercolor renderings include the lush scenery from a variety of perspectives, the characters and their activities, their vivid imaginings, and the kids' captioned "photos." The whole is infused with wonderfully understated accidental, but child-centered humor. A journey into family dynamics, shared experience, and memory that is well worth the trip.-Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Newbery-winner Perkins again displays her talent for picking out the telling details in ordinary activities--taking a young narrator and her family on a two-day drive to a now-unused farm for a rain-swept vacation capped by a general gathering of uncles, aunts and cousins. Though the child and her brother both try to record their experiences with disposable cameras, their snapshots capture far less than the thought balloons in which many of the low-key painted illustrations are framed. Perkins evokes both past and present by placing ghostly or fanciful memory images into placid scenes of passing roadside sights, local outings, rainy day living-room activities and views of people alone or chatting amiably in groups. "It's hard to take a picture of a story someone tells, or what it feels like when you're rolling down a hill," the young narrator concludes. "But those kinds of pictures I can keep in my mind." An outstanding choice for pre-vacation reading or for ruminative children at any time. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
