FICTION

A House

Greenwillow. Sept. 2021. 32p. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9780063092600.
COPY ISBN
PreS-K–In a style that resembles the simple elegance of Tomie dePaola’s work, and with a narrative arc that has the emotional heft of Pam Conrad’s The Tub People, this story follows a house that undergoes a transformation. A gentle narrator guides children through the pages. First, there is just the house. The questions begin: “Where is the door? What color is it? Where is the window? What shape is it?” This approach turns young onlookers into active participants as the house stands through morning and night, above puddles but below clouds, through rain and snow. When small, toy-like people and pets of various rainbow hues line up outside the house’s blue door before filing in, there is a shift that is subtle but sacred; the house becomes “home.”
VERDICT As in Sun, Flower, Lion, Henkes continues to whittle away all but the essentials in his life lessons for preschoolers, and the result is accessible and resonant.

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