Are We There Yet?: Yay! by Emily Rodda

We're going to Crazy Family Fun World. YAY!
I feel car sick. OH!
So I get to sit in front. YAY!
Jason says I'm a wimp. OH!
Then Jason gets car sick. YAY!
On the food. OH!
But we can get more at Crazy Family Fun World. YAY!

We've all been there. Uncle Todd and Grandma, Mom and Dad, Big Brother and Little Brother, picnic food and a long ride in the van, ready for a day at the theme park. Yay!

So begins Emily Rodda's hilarious tale of family fun in the sun, complete with a freckled happy-faced kid for whom places like Crazy Family Fun World were made. Uncle Todd freaks out on the Gripper, Dad freaks out on the Monster Train, and Mum calls it quits on the Giant Wheel. Big brother Jason gets lost in the Mirror Maze and Grandma goes in to find him, and... you guessed it, she freaks out in there, losing her dentures in front of the multiplying mirrors.

While the rest of the family goes in to rescue Grandma and Jason, the kid brother rides all the rides by himself. Yay! Yay! Yay! When the family finally staggers out of the Maze, they're too woozy to eat, so the kid eats all the ice cream. When it's time to leave and Dad can't find the car keys, the kid cheerfully does all the rides all over again while they search! Yay!

Yay! is great fun to read aloud, especially if you can do the "OH!" refrain with the proper inflection, somewhere between a whimper and a whine! Don't worry about the "Yay:" the kids will be doing that one on their own--with great verve!