I can't think of another picture book since Peter Spiers's 1978 classic, Bored—Nothing to Do!, that gets inside small boys' heads more convincingly.
—The Washington Post

James and Eamon spend a week with Bill and Pam, Eamon's grandparents, while they take in a week of nature camp-a week that turns out to be "the best week ever." A deadpan text narrates the events of the week, from the obligatory nature hikes and sleeping on an inflatable mattress downstairs to Bill's well-meaning attempts to engage them in wildlife study and Pam's great cooking. Frazee's hilarious round-headed cartoons romp across the page in snort-inducing counterpoint, abetted by the occasional speech balloon ("I think it should be called Sit-Around-Camp."). What emerges is a complete portrait of two thoroughly modern boys who watch TV, get messy, resist both nature and self-improvement-and still get won over by the spell of the great outdoors. The genius here is not that the boys finally get outside in the end; it's that their joy in being together is celebrated equally whether they're annihilating each other in a video game or building a replica of Antarctica on Bill and Pam's dock. As respectful of kid sensibilities and priorities as it's possible for an adult to achieve. (Picture book. 5-8)

* “Summer can seem a long time away during the colder portions of the year, and summer books can hold a special promise and poignancy in the long run-up until the months of freedom. Truly stellar summer books, such as Lynne Rae Perkins’ Pictures from Our Vacation can evoke the weirdness and unexpected magic of summer’s free-form experiences even in the darkest season. Add in some snarky and boisterous grade-school humor, and you’ve got A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever. . . . This sweetly captures the pleasures of youthful time-wasting in the company of your best friend with a keen understanding that those pleasures are best when they’re unsentimental. The result is just realistic enough to be perfect, a grade-schooler’s idyllic summer with limited demands for learning and bettering and a whole lot of reveling in kid priorities. A wonderful late-winter reminder that summer is coming, this will cheer up audiences by encouraging them to reflect on glorious summers past and even more glorious summers to anticipate.” (starred review)