A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever

No, the title of this post is not another attempt to use the word best to trick websurfers into checking out my blog. It is the title of a funny and big hearted new picture book by Marla Frazee. In it, a little boy named Eamon stays at the beach house of his grandparents, Bill and Pam. Eamon's friend James comes to stay so the boys can attend a week of Nature Camp together. Bill, a lover of penguins (the penguins are following us!) attempts to get the boys interested in penguins and Antarctica with proposed museum trips and maps and charts. James and Eamon prefer to stay indoors, playing video games, eating banana waffles, and enjoying the air mattress. How I could relate to that as our AeroBed is probably on my sons' list of "Top Three Things You Would Save in a Fire." Ethan laughed in self recognition when he saw the illustration of James and Eamon on the air mattress surrounded by stuffed animals. Readers don't actually see much of the boys at Nature Camp but can enjoy their droll and sarcastic comments about it as Frazee does show the trip to and from camp in Bill's car. Lest you think it is all eye rolling and boys avoiding nature, the end of the book and the end of the boys' week is pure magic. The magic of friendship and imagination and discovery. A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever is a fun summertime read with much of the humor delivered in the illustrations and speech bubbles. It made me listen much closer to my children and their friends as I drove the carpool home from summer recreation camp yesterday afternoon. Frazee got her campers; comments and observations pitch perfect.