Home

by Jeannie Baker, Jeannie Baker (Illustrator)

Overview

"A story about the small things in one neighborhood—their fragility, strength, and connection—and their power to make a difference." (Booklist starred review)

This powerful wordless picture book with beautiful collage illustrations can be "enjoyed independently or incorporated into units on the environment, communities, or artistic technique," according to School Library Journal. "A book to treasure."

In Jeannie Baker's striking, natural collages, an urban community reclaims its land. A city street becomes a living, thriving neighborhood—a place to call home.

Little by little, baby Tracy grows. She and her neighbors begin to rescue their street. Together, children and adults plant grass and trees and bushes in the empty spaces. They stop the cars. Everything begins to blossom.

As an author/artist note states: "The choice is ours to make—having simply a place to live or, by understanding the land and caring for it, belonging to a living home."

A family. A house. A neighborhood. A place to play. A place to feel safe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780066239354
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/16/2004
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.25(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jeannie Baker is the author-artist of a number of distinguished picture books. Window, the companion book to Home, was a School Library Journal Best Book, a Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, a Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, a Young Australian Best Book, and was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Her other books include Home in the Sky, an ALA Notable Book, and Where the Forest Meets the Sea, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and the recipient of an IBBY Honor Award and a Friends of the Earth Award in Great Britain. Jeannie Baker makes her home in Sydney, Australia.

Jeannie Baker is the author-artist of a number of distinguished picture books. Window, the companion book to Home, was a School Library Journal Best Book, a Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, a Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, a Young Australian Best Book, and was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Her other books include Home in the Sky, an ALA Notable Book, and Where the Forest Meets the Sea, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and the recipient of an IBBY Honor Award and a Friends of the Earth Award in Great Britain. Jeannie Baker makes her home in Sydney, Australia.

Editorial Reviews

"This wordless picture book with exquisitely detailed collage illustrations speaks eloquently about urban conservation. The community brings back a variety of local plants, and by the time the young woman's own baby is born, trees block the billboards, there are birds on the roof and in the sky, and cyclists and a bus can be seen on the roadway. The details show and tell a story about the small things in one neighborhood—their fragility, strength, and connection—and their power to make a difference." — Booklist (starred review)

"The area is slowly reclaimed, so that the final view through the window is clean, lush, and green, with birds nesting peacefully in new trees and vistas that reveal glimpses of the now-visible blue river. In each of the double-page views through the window, readers can note not just the physical changes, but also the people in the community actively engaged in affecting those changes and producing a true home. Baker uses natural materials to create detailed, arresting collages that tell a story in which words are superfluous." — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

"This wordless picture book with exquisitely detailed collage illustrations speaks eloquently about urban conservation. The community brings back a variety of local plants, and by the time the young woman's own baby is born, trees block the billboards, there are birds on the roof and in the sky, and cyclists and a bus can be seen on the roadway. The details show and tell a story about the small things in one neighborhood—their fragility, strength, and connection—and their power to make a difference."

Booklist (starred review)

Like Window, Home features Baker's signature collages, each a treasury of constantly changing details. Almost as powerful as the civic and environmental messages in these books is the awareness of time passing. But where Window equates that passage with entropy and loss, Home sees possibility. — Elizabeth Ward

The Washington Post

Jeannie Baker projects a hopeful portrait of urban renewal in Home. As in her previous Window, the picture book unfolds as a wordless series of collages, this time charting the rebirth of a neighborhood as a girl, Tracy, grows up. Readers watch the community come together as a major clean-up effort gets underway, with lush vegetation rejuvenating the dilapidated neighborhood. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 4-When baby Tracy is first brought to her new home, the view of the urban neighborhood as seen through her window is not a pleasant one. Billboards and graffiti are everywhere, garbage is strewn across the streets, and only a few meager plants are fighting their way through the cracks in the cement. Bit by bit, as Tracy grows, the area is slowly reclaimed, so that the final view through the window is clean, lush, and green, with birds nesting peacefully in new trees and vistas that reveal glimpses of the now-visible blue river. In each of the double-page views through the window, readers can note not just the physical changes, but also the people in the community actively engaged in affecting those changes and producing a true home. As she did in Window (Greenwillow, 1991), Baker uses natural materials to create detailed, arresting collages that tell a story in which words are superfluous. Children can pore over these pages again and again and make fresh discoveries with each perusal. Whether enjoyed independently or incorporated into units on the environment, communities, or artistic technique, this is a book to treasure.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

As she did in Window (1991), Baker offers an intriguing wordless observation of how a neighborhood changes over time through the vantage point of a double-paned window frame. She views each scene from the same perspective; personal objects on the sill connote the passage of time as a young girl grows into adulthood, e.g., a teddy bear, a cup with "I am Four," a pencil case marked "age 8," a make-up mirror, a university prospectus, and a wedding invitation. The ingenious staging of miniature collage constructions creates a 3-D effect that humanizes the urban changes that transform the community into a place that's "home." The author's note expresses her tenet and belief that "communities are finding ways that their streets can once again become part of people's sense of home and belonging." Brilliant in concept and execution, this fascinating enactment conveys the importance of community in a young person's life. Kids and adults will pore over the tiny details, from building graffiti to people planting gardens and kids walking dogs. It's like looking through a magical lens of time-release photography. Mesmerizing. (Picture book. 5-10)

Kirkus Reviews