What Family Hasn’t Taken A Vacation
That Went Different Than Imagined?
Description
There are zero reasons for Theo Ripley to look forward to his family vacation. Not only are he, sister Laura, and nature-obsessed Dad going to Big Bend, the least popular National Park, but once there, the family will be camping. And Theo is an indoor animal. It doesn’t help that this will be the first vacation they’re taking since Mom passed away.
Once there, the family contends with 110 degree days, wild bears, and an annoying amateur ornithologist and his awful teenage vlogger son. Then, Theo’s dad hits him with a whopper of a surprise: the whole trip is just a trick to introduce his secret new girlfriend.
Theo tries to squash down the pain in his chest. But when it becomes clear that this is an auditioning-to-be-his-stepmom girlfriend, Theo must find a way to face his grief and talk to his dad before his family is forever changed.
Details
- Rating: ☆☆☆
- Title: An Occasionally Happy Family
- Author: Cliff Burke
- Genre: Middle Grade
- Grades: 3 – 7
- Ages: 8-12
- Length: 224 pages
- Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
- Release Date: May 18, 2021
My Thoughts
Let me be honest, I had to read this book. After all, don’t many of us judge a book by its cover? I did. I judged it to be funny and full of relatable incidents. And that it was.
Theo’s family’s vacation usually consisted of visiting his grandma, but this year his dad had other plans for them. Theo and his sister have been out of sorts over life lately. Though no one has said anything, it’s probably because they are still trying to deal with their mother’s death, which occurred two years ago. They seem to be getting uglier and uglier toward each other. And their bad attitude has spilled over to their dad.
Could it be possible that by not addressing the elephant in the room, Mom’s death, that they have deteriorated so far as a family?
As expected there were literally laugh-out-loud places for me. The author’s descriptions and dialog at times felt right on. Burke’s debut story had so many ups and downs. He could bring out both laughter and tears.
My Concerns
Unfortunately, I had enough concerns that I rated the book down a star or two. I understand that the kids were suffering from grief from not having discussed, as a family, the hurt and loss of their mom’s death. I completely understand the author’s point, but it’s going to take much more than that for a child to disrespect a parent like Theo and his sister did to their dad. That part of the book was really difficult to read.
The behavior of the kids in this book Theo and his sister, toward their dad, may be meant to elicit laughs or make a point as to the pain they were internally suffering, either way it’s a bad example to young readers. A better example is to learn to apologize and “use your words.” (Ugh, I was a secretary in an elementary school. I hated that phrase, but it seems fitting here.)
Final Thoughts
It pains me to rate this debut novel down. For me, it bounced between really funny and really disrespectful dialog. The writing was very good. Sadly, part of the content didn’t work for me.
My thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book and the ability to review it without any stipulations.
Rating
Burke is such a good writer that I couldn’t rate it anything less than 3 stars, though I feel very strongly about my concerns above.
About the Author
Clifford Burke grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. He worked as a house painter, a parking lot attendant, and a sign-twirling dancing banana before graduating from the College of William and Mary. He currently teaches English in Austin, Texas. This is his first novel.
