As she did in her two other craft books, Dette Hunter opens with the comic inversion that it’s adults who need entertaining, not children. Lily, the lively narrator, sharing a room in the family cabin with her older brother Simon, overhears her parents voicing their concerns that the week might be too long without TV and friends. Assuming their parents are worried about themselves, Lily and Simon wrest them from their lawn chairs and newspapers to help concoct fun food, games, and crafts that use found articles around the cabin and from outdoors.

The activities are all immensely doable, whether the locale is forested or beachy, and they don’t require highly developed hand co-ordination or trips to the craft shop. Most of them seem geared to young children, certainly no older than nine. The three best activities in the book are the banana canoes (yummy and nutritious), the puppet show, for which children make both theatre and puppets, and the underwater viewers, which allow you to examine lake life at night.

Parents will laugh at Hunter’s role reversal, with the whiny adults and the resourceful children making the most of a rainy day. Nevertheless, Hunter creates a believable family, whose members are characterized in deft, economical strokes. I took an instant liking to the urbanite mother, who elegantly lounges with her coffee and “would rather swim in city pools.”

Kitty Macaulay’s homespun illustrations are vibrant and dynamic, reflecting the affection Hunter conveys for her family. This book should not be forgotten when you’re packing for your family’s next country sojourn.