Camping
Grade 1-4-A family who can't afford fancy hotels, museums, malls, or arcades on summer vacation decides to try camping. The young narrator would prefer to go to Disneyland, but after one night of chicken stew and burned marshmallows, she changes her mind and, gradually, living in a tent becomes its own wonderland. While the author seeks to inspire a love of this kind of experience, the text doesn't work. It meanders from story to two- or three-word descriptions: "Tent up. Cloth spread, poles tensed, home raised. My sleeping bag, pillow, teddy. A playhouse for day, a flimsy fortress at night. Yawning space beyond." The sentences are at times poetic, but more often seem short, choppy, and in need of verbs. And the voice and word choices are definitely adult. Deines's illustrations, however, are quite beautiful, playing with color and light in an almost impressionistic manner. For a lovely book about the wonder and beauty of nature, try Gary Paulsen's Canoe Days (Doubleday, 1999). More inspiring camping titles include Vera B. Williams's Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe (Greenwillow, 1981) and Allen Say's The Lost Lake (Houghton, 1989).Be Astengo, Alachua County Library, Gainesville, FLCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.