My Family Vacation

by Dayal Kaur Khalsa

This warm, nostalgic tale and the author’s brilliantly colored paintings evoke a real sense of time and place and family fun that children and parents alike will find irresistible.

May and her parents and her older brother Richie are off to Florida – May’s first vacation far from home. After a long hot drive, full of fights with Richie, they reach their destination. Ahead lie sunny days filled with new adventures and unexpected pleasures that will bring May and Richie closer together. And when they get home, her Florida vacation is a happy memory for May all winter long.

Genres: Picture Books

24 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

Reviews

[Natan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always loved this book, as a kid, and now reading it to my daughters. It reminds of a somewhat-similar trip I took to Atlanta as a kid. The long hours in the car, the pictures of the roadside motel...

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a child due to the amazing illustrations. They could be framed as they are so beautiful. The story is about a vacation.

[Marcelaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

So we found this book downstairs in the mail room. Dumbest children's book ever! This family goes on a vacation to Florida. The brother is mean to the girl the entire way and makes fun of everything she does (which is realistic, but I don't want my kids reading about it). She keeps all sorts of garbage as souvenirs. They get to Florida. The parents spend the entire time tanning by the hotel pool and send the kids to go sight-seeing by themselves, which mainly involves exploring the hotel and playing games with other kids who are also staying there. They never once go see the beach and they barely leave the hotel. Who travels for a few days just to stay in a hotel in Florida? That is so pointless. If you're going on a vacation, you should actually go and see things.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great illustrations and I like how the author didn't whitewash children punching each other in the backseat while enduring a 3-day drive from New England to Florida. But I can't believe the parents really told their son and daughter (who look to be 8 and 10) to "go sight-seeing on your own" for days while they basked poolside? In 1988?