The Retired Kid was published in 2008 by Hyperion Books for Children. It was written and illustrated by Jon Agee.
Brian is an elementary school student and he has way too many extracurricular activities and chores to do. He need a break.
So what does he do? He hops on a plane to Florida and “retires” at an old folk’s home. While retired life goes well at the beginning, Brian realizes that it just ain’t that much fun hanging out with old ladies and geezers. He returns back to the “real” world with more enthusiasm.
The Retired Kid is a well written book. Every sentence uses fairly simple English and goes well with the illustrations (some pages have a lot of white space with two or three illustrations).
I don’t know how Brian manages to afford a plane ticket to Florida and why the seniors accept the boy, but I guess I’m not supposed to think about these kind of things since it’s a children’s book.
The author brainstormed the pros and cons of being a child versus being a senior and wrote this book. The structure is pretty simple and tight and doesn’t go on and on, like some other children’s books. The ending might make some adults groans since it’s got that overtly positive feel to it.
