Roxaboxen

Rating:
Summary: Roxaboxen...a wonderful place to imagine!
Review: I love this book! It reminds me of summer, when mom had to beg us kids to come inside after a long day of imaginary play in our 'pine-tree village'. What fun we had creating homes, shops, schools, using rocks, pinecones and anything else we could find to make our little village like home. This book is so similar I could just eat it up! It tells the tale (a true one at that) of a group of children who create their own village with rocks and boxes (get it? Roxaboxen?). The thing I love about this book are the illustrations---simple, yet beautiful, and of course the wonderful story of how the children used their imagination and creativity to create a timeless adventure. In this day of gameboys and computer games, this book is a refreshing change of pace. My four year old loves this book as much as I do, and we can't wait to create our own Roxaboxen this summer. Buy this book for your kids...or yourself! You won't regret it!

Rating:
Summary: Very nice book for adults.
Review: Lovely, haunting, poetic book -- for adults.

But, for a child, nostalgia for "the way we all used to play outdoors in an abandoned lot, decades ago" doesn't make a very interesting topic. Certainly there have been no repeat requests for this book at story hour. And mine is not a child who shuns the haunting, the subtle, the poetic.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful picture book geared towards adults
Review: Roxaboxen is a lovely story about a childhood playground created by the author's mother, her mother's siblings and her mother's friends.

While children will enjoy the pictures and may get some great ideas for building their own Roxaboxen "town", adult readers are the ones who will truly treasure this story. Its sweet nostalgic look at childhood is a catalyst for our own stories and memories to return. Cooney's pictures are appropriate and enjoyable but subdued.

Overall, a nice memorial to the real Roxaboxen and its residents.

Rating:
Summary: Roxaboxen
Review: Roxaboxen was one of my favorite books growing up as a child. I used to pass by Roxaboxen almost every week and we (me and my siblings) would play games just like in the story. It is a fun-loving and imaginative story that all kids and adults should read. The illustrations are incrdible and the book reminds me of when I was a child. A great read for all ages.

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Summary: A book as large as the desert sky
Review: The sky in Arizona is like looking into God's eyes. In its quiet way, this powerful book takes us directly into the realm of imagination and play that resourceful children inhabit. There is a cozy, dreamy drift to the tale, which describes the imaginary town of Roxaboxen, and the activities of the children who created and peopled it. The real gift of this book is how it illuminates that magical realm's fundamental importance to the spirit of both children and adults. Not one of the children from Roxaboxen ever forgot about it; it stayed with them for life. And it should for us all. Barbara Cooney works wonders with colorful, evocative illustrations that are even more beautiful and touching than those in Mrs. Rumphius. This marvelous book demonstrates that the best children's literature is equally enjoyable and valuable for adults.

Rating:
Summary: Roxaboxen
Review: This book reminds me of when I was little and how my brother and sister and my neighbors and I would set up our own town. We had a jail and a market and a toy store and a gas station and we would use our bikes for our cars.
This book allows children to make up their own towns and rules on how they would like it to be. It allows their imagination to wander.
The story is based on the author's mother's childhood. Roxaboxen is a real place on the corner of Second Avenue and Eighth Street, in Yuma, Arizona. The author was able to write this story by getting information from diaries, memories from relatives, and letter and maps frm inhabitants of Roxaboxon.
I would highly recommend this book!

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Summary: More than a Children's Story...
Review: This is a wonderful inspiration for anyone who works with or for children. Teachers and educators sometimes forget that we have a lasting and concrete effect on the children we serve. Do they remember us? ROXABOXEN answers with an emphatic YES! The memories of childhood are forever and the impact is widespread.

Rating:
Summary: An incredible world for kids
Review: This was my absolute favorite book as a child: I loved imagining the world of Roxaboxen as the children who 'lived' there did and I loved creating my own Roxaboxens in my world. Alice McLerran's kids taught me how to make my own places and times and adventures in my own universe. The entire book was so beautiful that I still smile whenever I see kid's books and remember my favorite or when someone asks me what my favorite book from childhood was.

Rating:
Summary: An incredible world for kids
Review: This was my absolute favorite book as a child: I loved imagining the world of Roxaboxen as the children who 'lived' there did and I loved creating my own Roxaboxens in my world. Alice McLerran's kids taught me how to make my own places and times and adventures in my own universe. The entire book was so beautiful that I still smile whenever I see kid's books and remember my favorite or when someone asks me what my favorite book from childhood was.