Henry Reed's Journey

       Henry Reed's Journey by Keith Robertson is a great book about a boy traveling across the country and recording his adventures in his travel journal. It's really cool.  It is illustrated by Robert McCloskey, who won a Caldecott Medal for Make Way for Ducklings.          
         Henry is a boy traveling across the country from California to New Jersey with the Glass family. Along the way they collect souvenirs, stuff the station wagon, and have a lot of fun while they're at it. I would like to travel with them.
         There are two parts I like. The first one is where Midge Glass accidentally dropped the car keys down the side of the Grand Canyon. Henry and a friend they met called Terry used a bent paper clip to fish the car keys.  The second part I liked about the book was when Midge and Henry traded a horned toad for an unfinished painting. They came to Taos, New Mexico, where there was an art exhibit and you could sell your paintings. Well, Midge wanted to sell their painting but "doctor it up" first. They put an eggplant in one corner and a carrot under it. Then they put an egg on top of a mountain with spiders crawling down it. The painting won honorable mention, plus Mrs. Glass bought it! She would never know that her daughter and Henry made it.