The Perfect Clubhouse

This is the book that led me to ask Daniel J. Mahoney to illustrate my book - the sense of style, joy and creativity is awesome and every child will truly enjoy taking this journey.

Four animal friends wants a special place to call their own and have fun together. They decide to build a clubhouse. Things go well at first. They build the clubhouse and try to find the perfect spot for it. This is when the trouble starts. They all find out that each of them as a different idea on where to have the clubhouse and what it's functions should be. The friends have a fight and decide to do things on their own. After a while they find out have fun in much better when you have fun with friends. They reach a compromise. The book teaches kids that friendship is important and that sometimes you have to make compromises to make others happy. We would recommed the book to others. The artwork is neat to look at while the story is being read. This would make a great bedtime story.

The Perfect Clubhouse Daniel J. Mahoney Illustrations by Daniel J. Mahoney Stanley, Heston, Floyd, and Julius need somewhere to go to play during the summer. First, they try Stanley's house, but his mom discovers them working on science experiments on the kitchen table, and tells them to take their experiments outside. The friends learn once they are outside that they cannot go to any of the other's houses either, because Heston's mom is going to have a baby soon, Julius' three sisters would start bothering them, and Floyd's apartment is too small. The four friends decide they need a place to call their own, and after looking at a comic book, they decide to combine all of their money to buy a clubhouse. After emptying their pockets they clearly do not have enough to buy a clubhouse, but Heston remembers that his dad recently added a room onto his house and has plenty of lumber left over, so the friends decide to build their own clubhouse. Heston, Julius, and Floyd go to Heston's house to get the supplies, and come back to find Stanley standing beside a garden. They decide to build their clubhouse beside the garden, then change their minds on the location a few times. After building the clubhouse each of the friends has their own opinion on how the clubhouse should look, and be used. The friends are furious with each other, so they do things by themselves. They realize that they aren't happy doing everything alone, and end up playing together doing everything together that they were doing individually. BIBLIO: 2004, Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Company, Ages 5 to 8, $15.00. REVIEWER: Clifford Craig FORMAT: Picture Book ISBN: 0-618-34672-4