Customer Reviews

House Takes a Vacation

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book rolls along on one hilarious word play after another. After the Petersons leave for vacation, their house decides it wants to take a holiday, too, but not before a squabble with the different parts of the house. The sunporch wants to head for the beach, but the basement refuses "to rise to the occasion." Lee White's delicious color pencil sketches show the house finally setting off, with the front door leading the way! The adventures of this vacationing house shouldn't be miss for those who love well-written, and beautifully illustrated picture books.

This is an excellent book to read to your class after a basic introduction for punctuation. It is very well written and extremely funny with creative language. I loved it for my 5th grade class!

Jacqueline Davies' THE HOUSE TAKES A VACATION receives Lee White's drawings and tells of a house who decides it wants to take a holiday, too, when its owners go on vacation. The only problem is - different parts of the house want different things, so it can't decide on where to go. What happens when one part decides to go just where it wishes? Lots of fun!

Mommy Bookworm's Thoughts: I love the illustrations in this book. The house is cute and I think it's neat how all different parts of it can talk. I like the general idea of the story. In the description on Goodreads, it says that "clever puns in the dialog . . . make this a fun read." Personally, I disagree. I think the puns are pathetic and are only understood by the adults who read it (or older kids). It is kind of like some animated films where the jokes are aimed at the adults & the animation is more for the kids, and the kids laugh because the parents laugh and the animation is funny, but they don't really understand the meaning. It's a cute story & I think that most kids would like it because of the overall gist and illustrations. However, I personally think it'd be better without the words or with different words! It's another one where it'd be interesting to many ages of children, but it would need to be the higher end of the age range to read it themselves.

Dahlia Bookworm's Thoughts: I like that the house could talk. I thought it was funny that they got lost in the ocean. I like the drawings. I could easily read the book by myself. I would recommend it to kids my age and younger.

Daisy Bookworm's Thoughts: I really like the illustrations. I think it's funny because the house can talk. I think it's funny how it walked away. It's funny that the house thought it could surf. It's a very funny story. I like how the house brought sea creatures home with it. I would need a little help reading it. I would recommend it to other kids too.

Jacqueline Davies, The House Takes a Vacation Marshall Cavendish, 2007)

I love the idea of this book--when the family goes on vacation, the house decides to do the same--and Jacqueline Davies' writing in that regard is all well and good. It's a cute story, with more than enough puns for sharper young-gradeschoolers to pick up on. But pick this one up from the library first to make sure you, or your kids, don't find Lee White's illustrations to be disconcerting. Okay, not disconcerting, outright creepy. You may be able to tell just by looking at the front cover, but the effect didn't have its way with me until I'd gotten about three-quarters of the way through. ** 1/2