HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION

by Mark Teague ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1995

In an illustration bounded by neat white borders, Wallace Bleff writes ""How I Spent My Summer Vacation"" on the blackboard at school. Then imagination takes over as a steam engine thunders right out of the wall and readers are transported to the Wild West, depicted larger-than-life in full-bleed oil paintings. Captured by cowboys, Wallace acquires a fancy cowpoke costume, learns to rope and ride, and bravely diverts a stampede, matador-style. The rhyming text derives much of its humor from its interplay with the illustrations. When Wallace's Aunt Fern calls to invite the cowboys to a barbecue, the illustration shows Wallace in a modern phone booth, plunk in the middle of nowhere. In another spread, fat longhorn cattle stampede directly toward Aunt Fern's, where a green, mowed lawn borders abruptly on scrubby desert. The jokes continue right up to the final page, where Teague playfully trounces any last remaining boundaries between fantasy and reality. Rip-roaring fun.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0517885565

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1995

Categories: CHILDREN'S