A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever

Talk about a book with a whole lot of personality! This is apparent immediately by simply spotting the “price tag” on the front cover that says “25 cents (you wish).” Half of the humor is directed toward the adult reading the book, which probably makes it inappropriate for the classroom, but a fun one for guardians and their kids. For example, on one page car with the dialogue bubble “#*%*” is accompanied by the text: “James and Eamon learned a lot of new vocabulary words while Bill drove.”
The rest of the book is filled with plenty of dry humor. It is almost as if the author intended the pictures to be for the child and the text, for the adult.

Extremely silly and funny and heartwarming, Frazee has captured one brief week in the lives of James, Eamon, Pam and Bill. The illustrations are beautifully done in black prismacolor and gouache and often contradict the text for extra humor. The endpapers are particularly fun because they provide glimpses into the actual nature camp experience which we don't see at all in the narrative since the boys are too busy having fun elsewhere. Perfect for the grade school crowd as a read-aloud, it could also tie into nature units and grandparents day activities.

James and his friend Eamon are going to Nature Camp for a week. It's a day camp near Eamon's grandparent's beach front house where the boys spend their week. If you want to see what they did at camp all you need to read are the endpapers which are snapshots of their time at camp. Their best week ever happened at Bill and Pam's (Eamon's grandparent's) house.

Bill's a nice old guy who has traveled the world, loves penguins, and wants to talk about Antarctica all the time. The boys couldn't care less. Pam's cooking is better than anything the boys get at home, but probably because all she serves them is banana waffles. The boys stay in the basement, sleep on an inflatable mattress that serves as a fort, a trampoline, and a couch for their show more video game playing. They wear the same shorts all week long.

James and Eamon are boys, true boys, marginally overseen by adults, living the summer that boys dream of. Their week over, the boys look out over the ocean at night, feeling something they can't articulate. But they know what to do: they collect driftwood, small rocks and mussel shells and assemble a miniature Antarctica complete with penguins on the deck. They hug Pam and Bill and hope they can go to Nature Camp again soon.

Frazee knows boys. At the very least she knows these boys, and she knows that with boys everything is indirect. Bill asks them if they want to go see the penguin exhibit at the zoo, they boys say they'll think about it, and then they run away. They aren't trying to be rude, they're just boys doing what boys do, which is run away from conflict. I don't have a problem with this, because Frazee presents this with the same carefree attitude that boys bring with them. At the very end of their week when the boys don't know how to address their feelings of sorrow they do what boys do best: they build things, the express their feeling physically.

I'm on the fence between calling this a good picture book and a great picture book. It's heart is in the right place, the humor is dry and authentic, but I'm left feeling like their best week ever needed a little more of an anchor, maybe one or two more activities to solidify their week. Their days are taken up with Nature Camp -- which is never shown, and I'm fine with that -- but I wish they'd had more time at Pam and Bill's to build or create or invent some week-long project that could mirror the building of their summer friendship.

Will boys like it? Probably. Will they get it? Maybe. Does it matter? Nope. show less

James and Eamon visit Eamon's grandparents for a week of "Nature Camp," though the illustrations show that the two may not experience as much of the great outdoors as the camp name implies.

The real delight of the book is the way the words and the illustrations work together to tell a complete (and slightly sarcastic) story. The text describes scenes that are expected from an actual nature camp, while the pencil and gouache drawings portray how the boys' time was really spent (playing video games, eating waffles, and watching television). Though there is often a long paragraph of text on each page, the illustrations provide enough entertainment that children will be unlikely to want to preemptively turn the page.

Recommended for library show more and personal collections, A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever is a book kids will want to reread, and adults won't mind reading again. show less

I found this book to be very enjoyable. The big idea of the book is to show the fun to be had when you are with your best friend. One thing I enjoyed was the use of illustrations in the book, adding an element of humor to the story through the slight variation between the illustrations and words. For example, the book says that the boys practiced quiet meditation. However, the illustrations show them loudly playing video games. Another example is when James arrives at the house. While the text says that he brought a couple of his belongings, the pictures show that James brought a mountain of boxes from home. These slight disconnects provide for many humorous moments throughout the book that are entertaining to read.
Another thing I show more enjoyed about the book was the friendship between James and Eamon. They do everything together and have lots of fun playing games and using their imagination. At one point, the Grandfather begins to refer to them as “Jamon” as a combination of their two names. This symbolized how the two boys grew closer over the course of the week. Overall this was a great book to read and would enjoy reading it again. show less

My son brought this book from the school library and I loved it. It's about two little boys who spend a week with relatives and attend a nature camp.
During their stay they refuse to spend time out or enjoy the surrounding area. They just go to camp(which they don't really enjoy) and come home to computer games.
On their last night they finally realize the beauty that surrounds them and they enjoy an evening of inventive play.
I think this book is wonderful for children and adults alike!

James and Eamon spend a week of their summer at Eamon's grandparents' house at the beach. Eamon's grandpa has excursions planned for all week, but the boys have a different plan. They spend half of the week inside playing video games and watching tv. They stuff their mouths with biscuits and waffles made by grandma. at the end of the week they realize they haven't done anything nature- related in their "fun nature summer camp" and decide to surprise grandpa with little penguin figurines they made with mussels and rocks. Honestly, not my favorite book. I think kids would find the humor hilarious, but I personally don't like how it encourages kids to waste their time inside with technology when they are on vacation. The ilustrations are show more really nice and I see why it was nominated for a Caldecott Award, but the message throughout the book I didn't like. show less