PICTURES FROM OUR VACATION

Newbery-winner Perkins again displays her talent for picking out the telling details in ordinary activities—taking a young narrator and her family on a two-day drive to a now-unused farm for a rain-swept vacation capped by a general gathering of uncles, aunts and cousins. Though the child and her brother both try to record their experiences with disposable cameras, their snapshots capture far less than the thought balloons in which many of the low-key painted illustrations are framed. Perkins evokes both past and present by placing ghostly or fanciful memory images into placid scenes of passing roadside sights, local outings, rainy day living-room activities and views of people alone or chatting amiably in groups. “It’s hard to take a picture of a story someone tells, or what it feels like when you’re rolling down a hill,” the young narrator concludes. “But those kinds of pictures I can keep in my mind.” An outstanding choice for pre-vacation reading or for ruminative children at any time. (Picture book. 6-8)