The Little Blue Cottage

by Kelly Jordan, Jessica Courtney-Tickle (Illustrator)

Overview

The little blue cottage waits each year for summer to arrive—and with it, the girl. Through sunny days and stormy weather, the cottage and the girl keep each other company and wile away the long days and nights together. Until one year, and then another, the cottage is left waiting and empty season after season.

In this heartfelt story about change, Kelly Jordan’s lilting text and Jessica Courtney-Tickle's lush art captures the essence of cherishing a favorite place.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781624149238
Publisher:	Page Street Publishing
Publication date:	05/12/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	361,301
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Kelly Jordan has a journalism degree from the University of Georgia and spends her days as a communications manager and magazine editor. She lives with her husband in Decatur, Georgia, and regularly visits her family’s little blue cottage in Florida. This is her picture book debut.

Jessica Courtney-Tickle studied illustration and animation with a focus in children’s picture books at Kingston University. A freelance illustrator, she especially loves creating nature scenes. She lives in Cambridge, UK.

Editorial Reviews

03/30/2020

In blank verse, newcomer Jordan explores the bond between a girl and her seaside summer home: “They grew up together/ from summer to summer./ The little blue cottage. / The little bay girl.” Jordan portrays the cottage as a character, a living being that rejoices when its humans return: “All year, the cottage waited for summer to return,/ and with it, the little girl.” Courtney-Tickle paints the brown-skinned child swimming, fishing, and dreaming on a bedroom window seat next to a large round window: “You are my favorite place,” she tells it. Her family, mixed-race and, eventually, multigenerational, is a loving presence, sitting around a kitchen table stacked with pancakes and surveying the ocean in rocking chairs. One year, though, they don’t return. Readers may worry as trees and weeds grow tall through an unexplained absence, but all is ultimately well: “Gravel crunched under feet/ and the little cottage cried, ‘At last!’ ” Retro spreads by Courtney-Tickle (The Perfectly Perfect Wish) portray the small blue house with a stumpy chimney and a porthole window; the cottage’s personification adds a touch of magic to this ode to a beloved refuge. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, Red Fox Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Arabella Stein, the Bright Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2020-03-15
Like a cottage quilt, rhythmic stanzas and vintage-style illustrations are stitched together with memories and love.

Lyrical, not-quite-rhyming text tells the simple yet touching story of a girl with brown skin and straight, black hair who visits a special blue cottage every summer with her interracial family. Shared activities (waterskiing, beach play, and cycling) and meals (pancakes) convey the closeness in this family. In the summer, the girl escapes the warm cottage to play on the beach; during torrential storms, she hides within the cottage walls, peering out at the high whitecaps. The cottage, serving as a secondary character, awaits the girl’s return each year, as well as the sights, sounds, and smells that accompany her visit. Alternating between vignettes and broad spreads, illustrations that recall the stylings of Virginia Lee Burton and Barbara Cooney have the texture and appearance of colored pencil. Muted earth tones dominate, and prints and patterns also adorn each thoughtfully composed spread, adding to the layered visual appeal of the book. Eventually the girl grows up and no longer visits, and the cottage falls into neglect, nearly disappearing into the surrounding vegetation. The book ends as it began, with a second multiracial generation returning to the little blue cottage, to restore its timeless splendor and build new memories.

A story of a girl, a cottage, and a family tradition that begs to be visited again and again. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews