Welcome to Read With Somebody You Love—a place to stop by and explore a few picture books that you and your children might enjoy reading. The summer months are the time when many families take to the road for a vacation. Perhaps you are planning a vacation right now for a little fun in the sun or you are planning a “day-cation” adventure nearby. These stories may inspire you or bring to mind great memories of trips past.

When I was a kid our family always traveled from WV to Myrtle Beach for a yearly beach fix. The worst trip I remember was when I got the measles during a vacation. No sun, sand, and surf for me that year.  Nobody gets sick in Arthur’s Family Vacation (Marc Brown, 1993), but Arthur doesn’t expect to have a good time when he has to go with his family to the beach for a week—he would rather be at camp with his friends. The situation doesn’t improve much when they arrive to find the Ocean View Motel is far from the beach, the room is small and the pool is no bigger than a tub. Then it starts to rain and doesn’t stop. D.W. even writes a postcard to Grandma saying “you were smart to stay home”. While reading the newspaper Arthur remembers that at camp they kept busy with field trips and this inspiration leads to a frenzy of family outings to places not affected by the rain. They spend the week visiting Flo’s Fudge Factory, Gatorville, the Cow Festival, and a Jungle Cruise. The last day of vacation finds the sun shining and the family has their day at the beach before it’s time to go home again.

 Eugene’s vacation turns from bad to worse in Terrific (Jon Agee, 2005)  But of course Eugene expects the worse out of every situation and even when he wins a free cruise to Bermuda he says, "'Terrific,  I'll probably get a really nasty sunburn."  Too much sun is only the beginning of his worries and a shipwreck (“Terrific, I’ll probably get devoured by sharks”) lands him stranded on an island with Lenny the talking parrot.  With much laughter (for the reader) and exaggerated forecasts of things to come from Eugene, the pair end up working together to get rescued and the “Terrific” at the end of the story has a very different tone.

Getting ready and anticipating a trip is half the fun. The Night Before Summer Vacation (Natasha Wing, 2002) celebrates this pre-trip time with rhyming verses in the “Night Before…” style. "Down from the attic our suitcases came, Mom whistled and shouted as if reffing a game: In bathing suits! In flip-flops! In sun block and hats! In flashlight! In lounge chairs! And whistle ball bats! To the top of the pile! To the top of the heap! Now pack away! Pack away! Five layers deep!" You don’t really know where this family is going on vacation, but you’ll want to make sure you’re in the car too when they leave!

Two more vacation pastimes—naps and fireworks—tell the story in Carl’s Summer Vacation (Alexandra Day, 2008) Toddler Madeline and her dog Carl are on vacation at a cabin by the lake.  Mom leaves the two in the hammock expecting them to fall asleep.  "You two have a good nap so you'll be ready to go see the fireworks tonight.” But as soon as mom and dad are busy cleaning up the cabin for visitors, the real vacation begins.  The rest of the story is told in wordless pictures that depict Carl and Madeline having fun in the canoe, picking blackberries, and eating a picnic.  They return the hammock just in time to be “awakened” for dinner.  With the fireworks blazing in the night sky, Mom and Dad wonder why the duo are fast asleep after such a long afternoon “nap”. 

Would it be vacation without pictures to remember it by?  Pictures From Our Vacation (Lynne Perkins, 2008) answers that question with a yes and a no.   As the family packs the car for vacation, Mom gives a brother and sister a camera and notebook.  The cameras take pictures that pop right out and are sticky on the back.  Mom tells the kids  that the notebook and photos will be souvenirs of our vacation.”  The first picture the young girl takes is a mistake—it’s of her feet.  The next one is of an old cracked swimming pool at the motel they stop at for the night.  Once they arrive at the family farm where nobody lives any longer the girl tells us, "Our dad saw happy memories everywhere he looked. All we could see was old furniture and dust."  The expectations of a great vacation slowly fade when the family can’t find the lake to swim in and then it starts to rain for days on end.  But at the end of the week the sun shines as the relatives arrive for a reunion and new memories are made that don’t need a photograph. The girl wisely concludes that "it's hard to take a picture of a story someone tells, or what it feels like when you're rolling down a hill or falling asleep in a house full of cousins and uncles and aunts. But those kinds of pictures I can keep in mind.”