Roxaboxen

This is a fun book about imagination and nature. It reminds me of days gone by, when we had a "fort" in an old field. Oh the adventures we had. Roxaboxen captures the essence if what it feels like to be a kid learning independence and exploring your world.

My 3 & 5 year old daughters absolutely loved this book, it sparked a lot of creativity in their outdoor play!

This wonderful, masterful story celebrates and honors child's play. The quiet music of McLerran's text tells of a hill where neighbor kids made, out of colored glass and round stones, a pretend town with houses and stores. I remember me and the neighbor kids outlining floorplans with swaths of cut grass after the mowers cut the field behind oru houses, which was the grounds of our elementary school. Like that play, Roxaboxen lacks a conventional storyline. Instead, the book is just about playing, about meeting with 6 or 7 of your friends and creating a place and obeying only the streams of imagination. Cooney's illustrations for this book are among my favorite in any children's book, and they are certainly my favorite of hers, which is saying a lot. Alternately dusky and vivid, full of glossy shade, glittering flashes, autumnal contrasts, her paintings gleam with the magic of this kid-made place and its serendipidous doings. Plus, the kids are from an earlier age, all elderly now but remembering it as part of their childhood, so the book really reaches across generations, revealing to your child that your own mother and father, your child's grandparents, were once giddy with play, too. The fun of these retold capers and gatherings makes me want to stake out a new field and carouse like I'm 7 again, and what better treat--and honor--can you imagine than reading your child this grinning, melancholy commemoration of their own manner of joy.

This was my absolute favorite book as a child: I loved imagining the world of Roxaboxen as the children who 'lived' there did and I loved creating my own Roxaboxens in my world. Alice McLerran's kids taught me how to make my own places and times and adventures in my own universe. The entire book was so beautiful that I still smile whenever I see kid's books and remember my favorite or when someone asks me what my favorite book from childhood was.

There are eight characters in this story; Marian, Anna May, Frances, Jean, Charles, Eleanor, Jamie, and Paul. Marian, who likes to take charge, named a rocky hill, Roxaboxen. It was really just stones and sand with some wooden boxes, but the children made it their special place. That had round black pebbles that they used for money. They made a street called Main Street first. Everyone made their houses out of white stones. They used the wooden boxes for tables or anything else you wanted. They would also try to find pottery to use as dishes. As time went by, they made a town hall. Marian named herself the mayor, which no one mined, just as long as they were having fun. They also added more streets as time went on. With bits of sea-green, amber, and amethyst, Frances made herself a new house. The children decided to have a bakery and ice cream stands. Jean and Anna May ran the bakery and Paul and Eleanor had ice cream stands. They also have a jail if you are caught speeding with your car. If you had a horse, you could go as fast as you wanted. They had a war; boys against the girls. If you reached your fort, you were safe. Roxaboxen also had a cemetery. They only had one animal in it, which was a lizard. Roxaboxen was always there for them, even if it was the winter when nobody went. Then they got older and moved away. Did anyone come back to visit Roxaboxen? Is Roxaboxen still there? Read the book to find out. Ilove this book because when I was younger I loved to imagin things like this. My friends and I did things similar to this book.

I love this book! It reminds me of summer, when mom had to beg us kids to come inside after a long day of imaginary play in our 'pine-tree village'. What fun we had creating homes, shops, schools, using rocks, pinecones and anything else we could find to make our little village like home. This book is so similar I could just eat it up! It tells the tale (a true one at that) of a group of children who create their own village with rocks and boxes (get it? Roxaboxen?). The thing I love about this book are the illustrations---simple, yet beautiful, and of course the wonderful story of how the children used their imagination and creativity to create a timeless adventure. In this day of gameboys and computer games, this book is a refreshing change of pace. My four year old loves this book as much as I do, and we can't wait to create our own Roxaboxen this summer. Buy this book for your kids...or yourself! You won't regret it!

Roxaboxen will allow adults to relive their childhood experiences, while allowing chilren to expand their imagination. Children will realize that their imaginary friend or place is a wonderful memory.