A review by backonthealex
A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee

4.0

This is a delightful tongue in cheek picture book about two friends, James and Eamon, who are signed up for a week at Nature Camp and who will be staying with Eamon’s grandparents Bill and Pam during camp. Bill is a real nature lover whose biggest desire is to go to Antarctica, but try as he might, he just can’t get “Jamon” (as he called the boys) interested beyond the coffee ice-cream icebergs with hard chocolate sauce on top that Pam gives them to eat. And when Bill invites Jamon to see a penguin exhibit, the boys opt for quiet meditation in front of video games in the basement. Careful readers will soon notice that all the text and illustrations plus speech balloons tell two different stories. The title of this book, A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, may seem rather ironic, but once camp is over and the boys have so free time, they decide to do something especially for Bill, so may the title isn’t so off-base after all. Complimenting the story are Frazee’s humorous illustrations that really brings out the boy’s close friendship, their energy, their interests and disinterests, all of which will probably remind you a of few boys you may know. It is also a wonderful intergenerational story that I suspect all elicit a chuckle or two from grandparents recognize themselves in Pam and Bill.