12/13/2021
This lighthearted meditation on dwelling places spotlights a range of homes with fanciful requirements for their denizens. “If you live in a tree house...” Gardner (How to Find a Fox) begins, “you’ll need to be a good listener.” In boldly hued art, Neal (Prairie Boy) paints two brown-skinned children in an elaborate tree house: one converses with a squirrel by tin-can phone, while the other listens to a record player via headphones. (They are not, however, listening to the adult calling and gesturing in the distance.) “If you live in a spaceship,” text continues, “keep curious, for there is wonder all around.” Inside the spaceship, two figures look out the portholes on one side of the ship while aliens in space suits peer inside on the other. A train (“Everything changes”), a burrow (“Everyone snuggles”), a candy store—all present repeating visual elements to discover and provocative possibilities to consider, and a final spread ties together the fizzy daydreams captured between the pages of a book. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)
Whimsical and imaginative, this sweet story is a welcome addition to many collections.” — School Library Journal
“Although frequently whimsical, this book gently encourages young readers to develop curiosity about domestic experiences outside of idealized and conventional representations…. Subtly philosophical, quietly adventurous, and perfect for bedtime.” — Kirkus Reviews
“[With an] emphasis on seeking out new experiences, whether discovering strange visitors from the portal of a submarine or flying from a nest on the back of a bird[,]… Young ones will have fun finding the cat and the books on every page as they explore the world presented in the colorful mixed-media illustrations.” — Booklist
[With an] emphasis on seeking out new experiences, whether discovering strange visitors from the portal of a submarine or flying from a nest on the back of a bird[,]… Young ones will have fun finding the cat and the books on every page as they explore the world presented in the colorful mixed-media illustrations.
[With an] emphasis on seeking out new experiences, whether discovering strange visitors from the portal of a submarine or flying from a nest on the back of a bird[,]… Young ones will have fun finding the cat and the books on every page as they explore the world presented in the colorful mixed-media illustrations.
12/01/2021
PreS-Gr 1—Readers are invited to imagine what it would be like to live in a number of different homes in this creative picture book. Numerous types of dwellings are explored, including a spaceship, tree house, castle, submarine, and more. Each new setting includes a characteristic or trait that is helpful for living in that place. For instance, if one were to live on a train, the resident knows, "that everything changes," and if someone took up residence on a farm, they would "see all kinds of families each day." Neal's mixed-media illustrations are utterly spectacular; each double-page spread is bursting with color and detail. Not only that, eagle-eyed readers will notice that each scene contains a hint of the home on the next page. This title could also function well in STEM lessons, as readers can discuss and build the type of house necessary for a given setting. Pair with The House of Grass and Sky by Mary Lyn Ray and other titles for story times and fruitful discussions on the topic of home. VERDICT Whimsical and imaginative, this sweet story is a welcome addition to many collections.—Olivia Gorecke, Cape May Cty. Lib., Ocean View, NJ
2021-12-03
Two young children dream of real and fantastical places to call home.
“If you live in a tree house…you’ll need to be a good listener,” opens the text. A double-page spread shows a girl—brown-skinned with Afro puffs—and a boy—cued as White with straight hair—using headphones to listen to a record player and listening through a tin-can telephone to the chatter of a squirrel. The text goes on to imagine the special things you can do, qualities you must cultivate, or unique experiences you might have in other types of homes, including a spaceship, a train, an animal burrow, a castle, a candy store, a farm, a dollhouse, a nest, and more. The illustrations show the two children transported to each of the different dwelling places (the children are always drawn to scale) and feature repeating abstract and geometric shapes. The artwork is also chock-full of interesting and often tiny details; for example, when the children reside in a submarine, a nearby jellyfish reads a book, and when they live on a spaceship, green aliens dressed in spacesuits float by in outer space. Sometimes the text is amusing, but there are poignant moments: “If you live on a train, you know that everything changes,” and “if you live in a nest, you need to be ready to leave when it’s time.” Although frequently whimsical, this book gently encourages young readers to develop curiosity about domestic experiences outside of idealized and conventional representations.
Subtly philosophical, quietly adventurous, and perfect for bedtime. (Picture book. 3-8)
