This Is My Home, This Is My School

by Jonathan Bean

Overview

A must-have for all homeschooling families, this charming and funny picture book explores the special rhythms and routines of home education, inspired by award-winning author-illustrator Jonathan Bean’s own childhood.

For young Jonathan and his sisters, home and school are one of the same. Mom is their teacher, and Dad is the best substitute a kid could ask for. From math, science, and field trips, to recess, show-and-tell, and art, an average school day with this lively, loving family is both completely familiar and totally unique.

This Is My Home, This Is My School draws inspiration from Jonathan Bean’s own homeschooling experiences and includes a note from the author as well as a selection of real-life family photographs.

“Sure to become a classic on homeschoolers' bookshelves all over the world.” —Sarah Mackenzie, Creator, Read-Aloud Revival and author of Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace

Did you love This Is My Home, This Is My School? Then don’t miss Building Our House, another autobiographically inspired picture book from Jonathan Bean about a family building their new house from the ground up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374380205
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	10/27/2015
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	325,065
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 12.30(h) x 0.45(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

JONATHAN BEAN received an M.F.A. from New York's School of Visual Arts and now lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A two-time winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, for At Night and Building Our House, he is also the illustrator of Big Snow, two picture books by Lauren Thompson, and Bad Bye, Good Bye by Deborah Underwood.

Editorial Reviews

Each scene is drawn with Bean's characteristic ramshackle, loose-limbed charm, with bright watercolor brushstrokes straying exuberantly outside the pen-and-ink lines. The house, it must be said, is a bit of a mess, but that's reassuring. Bean is not presenting home schooling as an escape from the unruliness of reality, or as a bid for total control over everything in a child's life. Loose papers and rows of boots and shoes line the floor, shelves overflow with books and jars, pets sprawl everywhere…The family's home looks chaotic yet cheerful and coherent. The images are pulled together by Bean's sunny-day colors, predictably wavy lines and bright, happy-looking people. What's happening in them looks like life.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

07/20/2015
Bean (Big Snow) offers a humorous and informative view of a homeschooling household. The boy who narrates—inspired by Bean himself, as family photos at the end make clear—stands amid a flock of chickens and addresses readers. “This is my home,” he says. When the page turns, he’s still there. “And this is my school.” Bean’s scribbly pen-and-ink style is perfectly suited for the liveliness of a home in which the living room is both a place to relax and a classroom, the kitchen is the cafeteria, and the family car is also the school bus. The living room is packed with papers, animals, plants, and furniture; it takes some effort to locate the teacher (his mother) and her pupils (the boy and his sisters). Bean shows the children canning fruit, playing music, and doing field biology in a creek: “We have a lot of classrooms,” he explains. Children whose classrooms are heavily regimented and lit with fluorescents will envy the family; it’s clear that it’s easier to learn in a place that feels like home. Ages 3–6. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

This is no ordinary back-to-school tale.” —USA Today

“Homeschooling families rejoice! This warm, uplifting, and hilarious book will delight kids who wonder if other families live just like they do. My family laughed, nodded, and smiled all the way through—from the first illustration to the last. Sure to become a classic on homeschoolers' bookshelves all over the world.” —Sarah Mackenzie, Creator, Read-Aloud Revival and author of Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace

“A great choice for emerging readers, and the strong sense of place, anchoring the school experience to a family's beloved home while also opening it up to embrace the wider world, will resonate with young children just beginning to navigate the home/school divide.” —School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

“Warmhearted . . . Capture[s] the coziness as well as the frenetic pace of the homeschooling day.” —The Horn Book

“The family from Building Our House returns, but this time their son tells readers all about life as a home-schooled kid . . . Home sweet school.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Humorous and informative . . . Bean's scribbly pen-and-ink style is perfectly suited for the liveliness of a home in which the living room is both a place to relax and a classroom, the kitchen is the cafeteria, and the family car is also the school bus.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2015-07-15
The family from Building Our House (2013) returns, but this time their son tells readers all about life as a home-schooled kid. As the author's note explains, Bean draws upon childhood experiences to give readers a peek into the day-to-day life of the family. His mom is his teacher, and his three sisters are his classmates, the "cafeteria" is the kitchen table, and just about any place can be a "classroom." When the teacher gets tired, she calls for help, and "the substitute teacher" (his dad) takes over. The sub also leads shop class, phys ed, and helps with homework (yardwork)—a list of duties that feels rather rigid in its adherence to strict gender roles, but at least the girls all participate in these activities as well. Bean employs a looser, more naïve artistic style here than in Building Our House, and it nicely matches the enthusiastic narration. The family is depicted as an industrious, curious, creative crew, with successive spreads revealing busy scenes of activity and inquiry. The ultimate message of the book seems to be that home schooling, at its best, positions learning as the stuff of life. Every place and every moment holds potential for learning, a message likely to resonate with many home-schooling families while also giving a window into this way of life for others. Home sweet school. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews