Pictures from Our Vacation

Not so much about the vacation, but about how memories are made. Even if the kids had taken better photos, the most important memories, Perkins argues, are in their hearts.

Well, ok. But I dunno. If there aren't some cues, like conversations, and the captions for the pictures, and souvenirs, most of the memories will be lost, and that would be a shame. I sure wish that we'd worked harder to preserve memories of my childhood; I have so few relative to all the enriching experiences I had. A little camera would have helped; at least it would have helped me focus my attention.

Still, it's a fascinating & fun little philosophical fable for all ages to share and reread, so, high marks.
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Reread. This time I also observed that everyone knows show more enough to just go with the flow, make the best of a bad situation, all those platitudes. It's a subtle lesson, but an important one, because there are a lot of disappointments and challenges in life and it is necessary to have an optimistic attitude. show less

I really relate to this story because when I think of my childhood vacations I don't need pictures to see those memories vividly. This story pushes the idea of taking mental photographs that last your entire life. This book is so playful and the relationship between the words and the illustrations is incredible. I would use this book to teach students descriptive writing.

I like this book for a couple reasons. First, I like that the writing and the illustrations flow together in the story. For example, on one page in the book there is an illustration of a pier and the words are written in a way that follows the pier. The author wrote, “and then we ran all the way out to the end of the dock.” These words are written alongside the dock that spans across two pages. I like this because it really makes the connection between the words and the illustrations of the story. I also like that the story is written in first person perspective from the little girl. I like this because the readers are able to experience the vacation through a child’s eyes and understand what she is thinking. Throughout the book, show more the girl is taking pictures of her vacation, but when she looks back at them she realizes that they don’t look as good as what she saw or that they don’t really show what she did on vacation. The girl says, “there were big electrical towers alongside the highway. I took a picture of them. In my mind, they looked like giant robots marching across the earth…in the picture they just look like electrical towers. I like this because the readers can experience what she finds important about this vacation. They can see that she liked what she saw with her imagination more than what the picture showed. This shows that sometimes our experiences are much better than the pictures we take to try and remember them which is the big idea of this book. show less

This story perfectly captures the ambivalence we all sometimes feel about family vacations. The children are excited to head off, feeling the length of the journey in the car, not sure about the parents' connection to the old family home and distant relatives, and surprised by the new connections they make with extended family. Told from the child's point of view with supporting "photos" from the trip.

2. Pictures from our Vacation, is a Realistic Fiction picture book written and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins, and published in 2007 by Greenwillow Books. Despite this book being a recipient of the Newbery medal, I thought it was just ok. The illustrations and ideas of picture are really good and actually ingenious. However, the way the words were organized on the page had me confused and bored at times. As the title implies, this book is about a family’s summer vacation and how they grew closer as a family. The illustrations are done in bright and vibrant pastels that drew my attention to the illustration and helped to enhance the story. My favorite page for illustration is page 24. This shows the whole family out on a nature hike show more in a big grassy meadow. On the bottom of the page are pictures of objects that children found on the nature hike like insects and leaves. The detail in this picture is truly amazing. The illustrator gave detail to almost every single blade of grass. What really captivated me in this picture were the clouds. They were very big, fluffy, and almost looked 3d. I could not take the organization of the words seriously at times. The words were not organized in a standard paragraph form like this review is written. Instead they were arranged differently on each page. As an example, on one page, there would be two or three lines at the top, then one at the bottom. This is ok. However, most pages had the words littered all over the page like on page 5. There is a line starting in the exact middle then one on the far right hand side of the page, almost flush with the end of the page. There would also be times when the words would be circular so I would have to turn the whole book. I feel like this could cause young readers to focus on just getting the words out and not focusing on the story. Family, bonding, and trust are central themes to the story. The family must bond together and come close when the storm approaches. They must trust each other to take turns navigating the map. show less

I love this summer tale of a childhood vacation not ending up to be the vacation the kids thought it would be! The pictures and text formatting in this book is wonderful and engaging! love this for a read aloud book.

This was a beautiful story of a family’s adventures. At first, the children don’t see the travel to their grandparent’s farm as a fun adventure. But eventually, the drive starts to give them things to look at. One of these strange but interesting items is an orange truck with the word yellow on it. When the children get to the big empty farm with three T.V. channels, they are still feeling skeptical about this vacation. One day, the family takes a drive to go search for the lake dad used to play in when he was little. Everything looked different and they had to stop and ask for directions but they eventually made it there. Later in their vacation other family members start to show up to the farm. Some of these members they are show more meeting for the first time. They end up having loads of fun. The kids now have their own memories of the farm, like their dad. The illustrations added another element to this store. We get to see illustrated maps and thought bubbles which help readers go on the journey with the Davidson family.

Details: This book was written to interest children in grades K-3 and is on a 2.7 reading level. show less