In the Town All Year 'Round by Rotraut Susanne Berner

In the Town All Year 'Round by Rotraut Susanne Berner

Rating: 5 look-and-find stars

This past April our family headed to the beach in North Carolina, a five-ish hour drive from our home in Great Falls.  I took 34 books for our kids.  I'm not kidding.  My husband even told me "Let's pack light."  So I did.  Knowing that there would be a washing machine readily available to wash our clothes every night if I wanted, I packed just two or three outfits for all of us.  Knowing that there would be a kitchen full of pots, pans, and Tupperware, I packed just a few toys and puzzles for Lorelei and Ben.

But books?  Who can skimp on books?  I actually hid them in each bag so that Jonathan wouldn't find them.  I put four or five bedtime books in the clothes bag for the kids, and another couple in our bag.  I had a book bag for the ride down there, and then had another book bag for the ride back.  I stuffed a few books under each child's car seat.  I cracked myself up!  I earned a "look" from my husband, which of course made me chuckle a bit.

For the record, we did read all of them many, many times.

But for this past weekend's trip to St Louis to visit my husband's family, we took just one.  This one. 

(Ok, I cannot tell a lie.  We packed two, In the Town All Year 'Round and Planes by Byron Barton that we had checked out from the library so we could read it on the plane.  Then we bought two at the airport's bookstore: Lorelei chose Ladybug Girl at the Beach and Ben chose Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car.)

Anyway, back to this great book.  It's a look-and-find, and is organized by seasons.  There are seven huge, gorgeous pages chock full of little details for each season, and the scenes are the same for each season.  They are, of course, altered according to what is happening in each season.  For example, in the town square picture in Winter, everything is decorated for Christmas; in Spring there's a farmer's market and flowers everywhere; in Summer there are picnics and a flea market with a storm brewing overhead; and in Fall leaves are streaming throughout the picture and geese are flying South.  You get the idea.

Lorelei received the book for her birthday, and, after she and Ben read through it once (and I snapped the picture above) I promptly tucked it away for the airplane ride.  We looked at it for about 30 minutes straight on the flight there and on the flight back, which is pretty good for a 3 year old and a little 19 month old!  Because Ben isn't talking just yet, he can point to things when you ask him to identify stuff.  And there are plenty of hot air balloons, helicopters, tractors, and airplanes--just a few of his favorite things!

We LOVE this book.  Is it bad if I hide it away until we go on our next airplane ride?