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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

James and Eamon spend a week at Eamon’s grandparents’ house while they attend a nearby Nature Camp during the day. The two best friends have a great time together, not necessarily at Nature Camp but during their off hours. Actually, neither boy seems to have much interest in nature. All week they turn down Grandpa Bill’s suggestion to go to a special penguin exhibit at a local museum, and they have no desire whatsoever to play outside. Instead, they watch TV, play video games, and stuff themselves with Grandma Pam’s banana waffles. Much of the humor comes from an incongruity between text and illustrations. For example, where the text says, “At night, James and Eamon slept on a blow-up mattress with an automatic pump,” the art shows the boys jumping up and down on the mattress. The text, in fact, describes events as an adult would want them, while the pictures show what the boys are really doing. Most amusing and poignant is the poor grandfather, wanting so much to share his passion for penguins with two boys who couldn’t care less. But it turns out something has sunk in. On the last night, the boys venture outside, and against a moonlit ocean backdrop, using rocks, shells, and sticks, they build an Antarctic scene, complete with penguins. Upon leaving the next day, “they walked like a couple of penguins all the way out the front door.” It’s a perfect ending to the boys’ best week ever. (Ages 4–7)

CCBC Choices 2009 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2009. Used with permission.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from February 18, 2008
Frazee (Roller Coaster
) salutes grandparents and slyly notes children's diversions in this breezy tale of “the best week ever.” After Eamon enrolls in nature camp, he spends nights with his grandparents, Bill and Pam, at their beach cottage. Eamon's friend James joins the sleepover, and although the text describes James as “very sad” when his mother drives away, a cartoon shows him exuberantly waving “Bye!” Humorous contradictions arise between the hand-lettered account (“Bill handed them each a pair of binoculars and a list of birds to look for. On the way home, the boys reported their findings”) and voice-bubble exchanges between the boys (Eamon, training the lenses on James: “His freckles are huge.
” James: “Yeah, and his tongue is gross
”). Bill tries to interest the boys in a museum exhibit on penguins; the inseparable friends (“To save time, Bill began calling them Jamon”) show no enthusiasm yet energetically build “penguins” from mussel shells. Frazee's narrative resembles a tongue-in-cheek travel journal, with plenty of enticing pencil and gouache illustrations of the characters knocking about the shoreline. Like The Hello Goodbye Window
, Frazee's story celebrates casual extended-family affection, with a knowing wink at the friends' dismissal of their elders' best-laid plans. Ages 6-9.

From AudioFile Magazine

James and Eamon are visiting Eamon's grandparents at the beach. Jasper Newell and Teddy Walsh's youthful voices capture the everyday lives of the two boys, complete with straightforward opinions ("Food is way better here.") and childlike giggles as they jump on the bed in the downstairs bedroom. Fred Berman pauses regularly to let the jaunty music and sound effects play their part. The story is framed by camera clicks and laughter as "Jamon" (Grandpa Bill's time-saving nickname for the two boys) takes photographs for the book's endpapers. Young listeners will want to pore the over the Caldecott-winning illustrations as they enjoy this story's understated humor. A.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine