Review: Preston Packrat gets a nostalgic look into the past when he helps Grandpa at his garage sale ...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 22, 2012
Preston Packrat checked out the old baseball glove his father gave him, but really wanted a new one.  An old glove was just that.  Old.  His dad had the glove when he was a youngster and thought Preston would like it as well.  He tried to convince him of that, but it was no go.  "In fact," Preston's dad claimed, "it's filled with many great memories from my childhood."  Memories or not, he wanted a new glove.  Preston got excited when his dad made a deal with him.  His grandfather was going to have a garage sale and if he helped him out, he'd buy the glove.  Yes!  No way he wanted that ratty old thing.They drove over the Grandpa's house and spotted him in front of his garage.  There were piles of boxes and it looked like Preston was in for a lot of work.  Preston's sister, Paula, was going to help out their Grammy while he and Grandpa got to work.  Stuff, stuff, stuff!  Grandpa had plenty of it and there were all kinds of odd looking things on those shelves.  Preston began to help Grandpa, but it sure looked like there were going to be a lot of questions ahead.  "Wow Grandpa, what is this thing with the long stringy cord and dial?  Hmmmm, it was an old rotary phone, but just what was that "robot-looking" thing on the shelf?  What about those little square plastic things?  That odd looking radio?  That thing with the letters that looked like a keyboard?Preston Packrat gets a nostalgic look into the past when he helps Grandpa at his garage sale.  Many children think their parents and grandparents are old-fashioned, but somehow Preston finds out that some of the things his father had when he was a youngster are really quite interesting.  Some of the items that Preston and Grandpa talked about will bring back memories for many "older" people.  For example, Preston found a Rock'em Sock'em game, a Polaroid camera, and things such as floppy disks.  The illustrations are delightfully charming and each vintage item is featured on a separate page.  The confident reader should be able to manage the book alone, but emergent and newly independent readers will need some assistance with the higher-level vocabulary. This was a fun look into the past that grandparents will enjoy sharing with their grandchildren.