Roxaboxen

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.

In a world filled with movies, ipads, video games, etc this book is such a refreshing change of pace! This story takes us on an adventure with some children in Arizona who build their own city in the desert using stones, desert glass, and old stuff they find. The illustrations are so calming yet exciting showing the kids driving their "cars" (anything they find that is a circle), working in their town bread and ice cream shops, riding their horses (ocotillo branches) and playing games, etc. The first time we read this book my 5 year old son immediately wanted to read it again. We originally checked this book out from the library but will be purchasing it to add it to our collection. Great book!

There are eight characters in this story; Marian, Anna May, Frances, Jean, Charles, Eleanor, Jamie, and Paul. Marian, who likes to take charge, named a rocky hill, Roxaboxen. It was really just stones and sand with some wooden boxes, but the children made it their special place. That had round black pebbles that they used for money. They made a street called Main Street first. Everyone made their houses out of white stones. They used the wooden boxes for tables or anything else you wanted. They would also try to find pottery to use as dishes.
As time went by, they made a town hall. Marian named herself the mayor, which no one mined, just as long as they were having fun. They also added more streets as time went on. With bits of sea-green, amber, and amethyst, Frances made herself a new house. The children decided to have a bakery and ice cream stands. Jean and Anna May ran the bakery and Paul and Eleanor had ice cream stands. They also have a jail if you are caught speeding with your car. If you had a horse, you could go as fast as you wanted.
They had a war; boys against the girls. If you reached your fort, you were safe. Roxaboxen also had a cemetery. They only had one animal in it, which was a lizard. Roxaboxen was always there for them, even if it was the winter when nobody went. Then they got older and moved away. Did anyone come back to visit Roxaboxen? Is Roxaboxen still there? Read the book to find out. Ilove this book because when I was younger I loved to imagin things like this. My friends and I did things similar to this book.

This is one of my favorite children’s books. It is neither funny or cutesy, rather it is it is the true memories of an old woman artistically woven so well that you can climb in to the pretend and play along, and wish that YOU had grown up knowing and playing withMaryann and Charles and Frances and Ella May and the others. It nearly brings me to tears each time I read it.

I'm really surprised that this book has gotten nothing but 5 star reviews. I'm a big fan of good literature (my favorite children's book is "Rikki Tikki Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling) and I was excited to receive this book based on all the glowing reviews. That excitement was short-lived when I finally read the book to my 6 year old son. It's not an awful book, but I didn't find it nearly as endearing as the other reviewers. It's a fairly short book, and all it's about is how the kids in town use their imagination in this place called Roxaboxen. They pretend they're riding horses or put in jail for speeding, etc etc. I wasn't a fan of the story or even the artwork. My son's opinion? He said, "Mom, this story is lame". This book will be going in the Goodwill pile.

This wonderful, masterful story celebrates and honors child's play. The quiet music of McLerran's text tells of a hill where neighbor kids made, out of colored glass and round stones, a pretend town with houses and stores. I remember me and the neighbor kids outlining floorplans with swaths of cut grass after the mowers cut the field behind oru houses, which was the grounds of our elementary school. Like that play, Roxaboxen lacks a conventional storyline. Instead, the book is just about playing, about meeting with 6 or 7 of your friends and creating a place and obeying only the streams of imagination.

Cooney's illustrations for this book are among my favorite in any children's book, and they are certainly my favorite of hers, which is saying a lot. Alternately dusky and vivid, full of glossy shade, glittering flashes, autumnal contrasts, her paintings gleam with the magic of this kid-made place and its serendipidous doings.

Plus, the kids are from an earlier age, all elderly now but remembering it as part of their childhood, so the book really reaches across generations, revealing to your child that your own mother and father, your child's grandparents, were once giddy with play, too. The fun of these retold capers and gatherings makes me want to stake out a new field and carouse like I'm 7 again, and what better treat--and honor--can you imagine than reading your child this grinning, melancholy commemoration of their own manner of joy.

I spent last weekend in Santa Fe, which reminded me so much of the beautiful Arizona desert I grew up in. This got me thinking about one of my family's favorite picture books: Roxaboxen. Roxaboxen is a celebration of the imaginary world that children often live in, and a great reminder to adults that sometimes all a child needs is the chance to play outdoors.

Roxaboxen takes place in a desert where, at first glance, the landscape appears to be quite bare. But it is not bare to the children who live there. For them, Roxaboxen is a place that through the power of make believe, turns into a magical world. As the children outline the streets with stones, the town begins to grow and grow. There's a main street, a town hall, a bakery and two ice cream parlors. ("In Roxaboxen you can eat all the ice cream you want.") The children build houses, which start off quite plain, but take on more and more rooms as time goes on. There's a jail and a cemetery in Roxaboxen, but the only grave is that of a dead lizard.

In Roxaboxen, everybody has a car; all you need is something round for a steering wheel. But you'd better watch out, because there's a speed limit for cars and if you don't mind it, you'll end up in jail. Even better, everyone has a horse. All you need for a horse is a stick and some kind of bridle. (And there's no speed limit for people on horses!)

Barbara Cooney's illustrations lend the perfect touch to Roxaboxen. She captures the essence of the desert perfectly. In particular, I love the ocotillos with the brilliant red flowers at their tips and the colorful desert sky at sunset. It whisked me right back to my own childhood in Arizona.

You can see that Roxaboxen is a "quiet book." On the one hand, there's not a lot going on, and yet there's so much going on. I love this book because it celebrates a childhood filled with play, instead of one filled with "things." My kids all loved Roxaboxen when they were younger. I think it's a book that will inspire your kids to go outside and create an imaginary world in your backyard.

This is what childhood is about! Using the imagination! Love this book! I am so glad that I found this at my local thrift store. And I'm equally as glad to know that my son is doing the same thing by using random materials found outside (pieces of wood, sticks, old tubes) and his imagination to make what he calls a "laboratory". He's 8 and his friends have been building this laboratory for a few weeks now. It's a keeper. And by "keeper", I mean it's never going back to the thrift store. Thank you,Alice McLerran, for writing and re-telling a wonderful story!

Wonderful story which has fostered a love of creating things from any box that delivers something to our home. The story is nostalgic for me- as one of 5 kids in a kid-folled neighborhood. We played outside for hours & had many 'civilizations' or play schemes like the one well-described in this terrific read-together book.

Haunting in the sense that it's unforgettable, from a time and place long ago and far away. I agree with the one reviewer who said it's good for adults, but I also think it's good for children. Adults will zero in on the deeper aspects, of course. Who doesn't have a Roxaboxen in their past? Many of today's children, I'm afraid, have been hurried indoors to safety and will never know a magical place like it.

Roxaboxen will allow adults to relive their childhood experiences, while allowing chilren to expand their imagination. Children will realize that their imaginary friend or place is a wonderful memory.

After reading this story of children having autonomy to create a world with what they had around them outdoors, my 7 year old son and 5 year old daughter, on their own initiative, went outside and started creating Roxaboxen in our backyard on a strip of dirt that seemed unusable. They spent about 4 hours creating their own Roxaboxen without fighting and really enjoyed themselves. They expanded it to suit their own interests and renamed it Roxaland. I borrowed this book from a library and now I'm going to buy it for sure. A real keeper that spurs on the imagination.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I read it to my 5 and 2 year old children, and they each sat through the entire story. In fact, once it was over they grabbed it from me to look at the pictures.

There was one thing I didn't like about the book, and it's only because it provokes a lot of questions from my 5 year old(has to do with the lizard). So, if your child has a tendency to ask lots of questions, you can skip that page. Otherwise, this is an excellent choice, and I'll read it again.

This is a pretty nostalgic book about the author's mother's childhood. She and her friends made the land behind their houses into their own play area, and spent time there, year after year, making cities and fighting "wars" and eating "ice cream".

Reading this book is really like diving right into somebody else's make-believe world. My nieces love it, but they don't get to read it too often, as it does make me cry :) Definitely check this one out.

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.

This wonderful true story takes the readers back to a time when children used nothing but imagination, rock, sticks, and wide open spaces to occupy their free time. A must have book for every family library.

A book worth repetitive readings. A story of a group of children who use their own ingenuity to create a play world from discarded boxes and rocks in a patch of southwest wilderness. The fascinating aspects of their play is both realistic and a tribute to the innate creativity of children, and of the richness of a natural setting. The semi-poetic narration lends it an air of dignity and nostalgia that even a child can sense, while the activities depicted would interest boys and girls alike.

While the product was beautiful I was very disappointed as I had indicated it was a gift, wrote out a special gift tag to be included they were not included for either book. The package arrived without an indication that it was a gift.

Our bookshelves are stuffed full of children's books. This one is an absolute must. I couldn't even begin to describe how utterly engaging this book is. If this doesn't turn on you and your children's minds with imagination, nothing will!

We actually first encountered this book at a used book swap through the school. One of the teachers had discarded it, and my son brought it home. What a beautiful book! The illustrations are wonderful, and the book makes you remember that "pretend" place in your childhood that every kid had. I just bought this book for my sister's first baby due to be born any day because for me it is a must-have in every childs' library.

We actually first encountered this book at a used book swap through the school. One of the teachers had discarded it, and my son brought it home. What a beautiful book! The illustrations are wonderful, and the book makes you remember that "pretend" place in your childhood that every kid had. I just bought this book for my sister's first baby due to be born any day because for me it is a must-have in every childs' library.

I love this story because it opens up possibilities in the minds of readers. It reminds me of my own childhood play unhindered by adult involvement. My children and I want to visit Roxaboxen someday but we have recreated our own versions in our play together.

I have taught Kindergarten, high school Spanish and the places in between. While Roxaboxen has made it's way into every classroom library we've built, I've yet to take the book with me when I've moved.
Roxaboxen is a gift. Sharing the 'Green Eggs and Ham" of emotional literacy anywhere creates positive karma.

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.

This book revives the heart of imagination in any child. It not only describes the things they love to do but also gives them creative ideas for more. My four-year-old does not grasp everything in this book but he loves it!

Roxaboxen will allow adults to relive their childhood experiences, while allowing chilren to expand their imagination. Children will realize that their imaginary friend or place is a wonderful memory.