When We Go Camping

This is a beautiful book but not entirely realistic. I was a bit shocked when I first opened it and discovered this family camping in what looks like total wilderness. I just can't imagine a lone family camping in such a place -- it's just too isolated and untouched. I would expect the ground to be rather swampy in a place like this, and I would expect the children to be wearing jeans and long-sleeved tops on account of the mosquitoes. So it looks a little artificial, these two city-looking children juxtraposed on this savage landscape. I just don't feel comfortable looking at the pictures; I can't escape the feeling that it would be irresponsible for a family to camp in such a place. Most of us camp in national parks, which still have plenty of wilderness. I think it would have been more convincing (and honest) for a book on FAMILY CAMPING (as opposed to a book about untouched wilderness) to show a family in an environment that looks more like a national park. So, although the pictues are beautiful and convey an authentic atmosphere of wilderness, the final impression is that we are looking at camping through rose-coloured lenses. If you want to show this kind of scenery, it would be better (in my opinion) for the campers to be natives or voyageurs from the past.

I think that this is a great book to introduce toddlers to camping. I love the illustrations and images that the words convey. I do hope that my daughter understands that we won't see all of these animals when we are out and about, though.

As part of our preschool autumn unit on camping, this was one of the introductory books we used for the unit. We began with a child-generated list of what we knew about camping. This book followed that discussion and the children were thrilled to find the things we mentioned throughout the book. Their eyes were wide with wonder as I turned every page. They walked through typical rustic campground experiences (not the KAO type!)with one line written on each page to describe the action. Example: "When we go camping, we catch trout, chop wood, and make a fire. (facing page) We hoist our food high up in a tree to keep the bears away." (bear tracks beside the print!) Animals appear very naturally in the woods or somewhere in each scene as you would see them in real life. Having seen a Piliated Woodpecker in the forest, I was delighted to see one in this book. Each page is a work of art making me want to seek out more books by this illustrator, Andrew Kiss. The cover is very representative of what you will find on every page. Highly recommend.

We bought this book before taking my two-and-a-half year old son camping, and he loved it. He's really attracted to the illustrations, especially finding the "hidden" animals on each page. The story was accessible to him, too. So accessible, in fact, that a hike through the woods on our trip prompted him to quote the book. I appreciate that the narrator's voice is vague enough to be either the boy or the girl that we see in the illustrations. I would have given 5 stars, but after reading this paperback book for about two weeks, the pages have become loose. I would hope for a little more life than that.

This book is perfect for preschoolers. It has beautiful pictures that let them discover all kinds of things about the outdoors. I bought this for my preschool class at church when we were studying creation and it was an awesome addtion to our library.