Lucky by David Mackintosh

HarperCollins Children's Books, 2014. ISBN 9780007463039.
(Age: 4+) Recommended, Picture book, Family, Surprises. When Mum tells the boys there will be a surprise at dinner tonight, they cannot wait. Leo and his brother discuss things that have been surprises in the past, and think about what tonight's surprise might be. In the waiting room at the doctor's Leo finds a brochure about Hawaii, and while they think about a trip and all it would bring, the older boy jumps to the conclusion that maybe the family has won a trip to this holiday destination. Both boys are very excited, their imaginations running away with them as they ponder what their holiday in Hawaii will be like. He tells someone in his class who tells someone else, who tells someone else, and eventually the whole school has heard about it, and the head teacher gives the school ten minutes of extra play time.
When they get home - disappointment. The surprise is a pizza for tea. But their parents cleverly work out a way of bringing Hawaii into the picture.
Redolent of family life, with the children taking imaginative leaps to conclusions beyond their wildest dreams, the details of the conversations between the family members are beautifully paralleled in the drawings of family life, and all who read it will share those experiences. Macintosh's illustrations are imaginative and clever, using a range of techniques and media to create the images of a family and their daily routines. Each page reminds us outings with the family, meals with the family, the everyday things that families do.
Fran Knight