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Building Our House
Author:
Bean, Jonathan
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Class:
Easy
Age: 3-6
Language: English
Descriptors: Picture Book
Demand: Average
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LC: PZ7.B366
Grade: P-1
Print Run: 20000
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ISBN-13: 9780374380236
LCCN: 2012004993
Imprint: Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Pub Date: 01/08/2013
Availability: Available
List: $21.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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1 v. (unpaged) : ill. (some col.) ; 32 cm.
H 12.3",
W 9.35",
D 0.6",
1.13 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's For Youth Interest Titles
Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Children
Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Children's Core Collection, 22nd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 23rd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 24th ed.
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Awards:
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Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Winners
Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices
Horn Book Fanfare
Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Horn Book Starred Reviews
Kirkus Best Books
Kirkus Starred Reviews
New York Times Notable Books
Notable Children's Books, ALA
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
School Library Journal Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Horn Book
Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal
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TIPS Subjects:
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Family Life
Construction
Architecture
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Architecture
JUVENILE FICTION / Family / General
JUVENILE FICTION / Legends, Myths, Fables / Country Life
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LC Subjects:
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Building, Fiction
Building, Juvenile fiction
Family life, Fiction
Family life, Juvenile fiction
House construction, Fiction
House construction, Juvenile fiction
Oversize books, Specimens
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SEARS Subjects: |
Building, Fiction
Family life, Fiction
House construction, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
3.8
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Points: 0.5
Lexile Level:
640
Reading Counts Level:
4.4
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Points: 1.0
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles | 01/01/2013 |
| It's time to build tomorrow from the ground up. A girl and her family build a new house in the country as machines, vehicles, and tools fill the pages of the project. 48pp., Color Ill. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Horn Book | 01/01/2013 |
| Primary. Drawing on childhood memories from his own family's house construction (see author's note), Bean creates an engaging story as well as a glimpse into a warm family setting. A little girl narrates, and her childlike voice provides an immediacy that removes any hint of nostalgia. She relates her contributions not as they are but as she perceives them in all their exaggerated glory; illustrations tell a different tale. For example, when she observes that "bad weather slows our work but doesn't stop it," readers see Mom and Dad trudging through the snow with building supplies while the little girl and her smaller brother go sledding. Similarly, once the frame is completed, the narrator indicates a flurry of activity: "We start our work inside. Our plans show us where to place walls that will make the rooms." Here youngsters will see the girl curled up asleep beside a newly installed woodstove. Other details, such as Mother's pregnancy and the birth of a new baby, appear only in the muted watercolors outlined in pen and ink. Detailed steps in the process are broken down into one- or two-sentence captions for half-page, unframed panels, while moments of greater import, such as setting the corners for the foundation, receive full- and double-page spreads. The circular shapes of trees, hills, and even the Airstream-like trailer the family lives in during construction clearly show that this is not just a house but a cozy home. betty carter. 48pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2013. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 12/01/2012 |
| Bean sets aside the urban setting of his Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner, At Night (2007), in this homage to his back-to-the-land parents, who built his childhood home in the 1970s. Told from the perspective of Bean's older sister, the story revels in the practical work of house-building, demystifying the stages of construction in a matter-of-fact, engaging tone. The oversized, portrait format echoes the height of the house the family builds, but front endpapers first show a vast, rural landscape in the foreground of which lies the "weedy field Dad and Mom bought from a farmer." Frontmatter depicts them packing and leaving the city. Ensuing spreads detail how they live in a trailer on their new property while slowly building the house: setting the corners of the foundation; digging out the basement; gathering rocks and using them in the foundation; measuring, marking and cutting timber for the frame; and so on. The scene depicting a frame-raising party situates the little homesteading family in a loving community of relatives and friends who gather to help; then, right after they all move in, the family grows when both Mom and the pet cat have babies. Throughout, the watercolor-and-ink illustrations invite close examination for narrative details such as these while also providing ample visual information about construction. Raise the roof for this picture book. It's something special. (Picture book. 3-8). 48pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2012. |
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| School Library Journal | 02/01/2013 |
| PreS-Gr 2. A year-and-a-half-long adventure of building a cozy home in the countryside involves an entire family of four. The oldest child describes the construction of the house, expertly shown in appealing soft-colored illustrations that vary in size from full spreads to small vignettes. Water and electricity are shown being connected to a temporary home in a trailer so the family can live on the property while the work is being done. Friends and family help out from time to time during the creation of the small timber-frame home, but the girl's parents perform the majority of work on their own (a third child arrives in the course of the story). Engaging pictures are reminiscent of Lisa Campbell Ernst's charming illustrations and are based on the building of the author/illustrator's childhood home. An author's note includes Bean's family photographs. Lovingly told, this captivating tale will help satisfy a child's curiosity of what it takes to create a building from scratch. Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI. 48p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 01/01/2013 |
| Grades K-3. An author's note reveals that this picture book is based on personal experience, as Bean's parents built their own house when he was a young child. Here we follow a mother, father, two children (and, eventually, a new baby) over the course of a year and a half--through a harsh winter and plenty of lumber pickups--all the way to move-in day at their new abode. Told from the point of view of the oldest child, a girl, the challenges and rewards involved in constructing from scratch become clear. The kids are not exempt from the do-it-yourself action, and they happily help "fill the loud mixing machine." Bean (At Night, 2007) makes use of every inch of the tall trim size here, filling his pages to the brim with heavily lined illustrations of bustling people and activity--often as a series of four vignettes across a spread. What's heartwarming throughout is the depiction of a tight-knit family ("My family makes up a strong crew of four"). The author's concluding personal photos add to the loving feel. Kelley, Ann. 48p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 02/01/2013 |
| R. 6-9 yrs. All but the most rabid adult DIY fans will shudder at the idea of building a house in their spare time, but children who follow the stages in this remarkable enterprise will think it's a fabulous idea. The young daughter of the featured parents supplies the matter-of-fact narration, explaining how the trailer for their temporary housing is pulled near the site, water and electricity are hooked up, and the work of collecting stones for the foundation and staking out the footprint begins. Winter rudely intervenes, but warm weather means the foundation can be excavated and lined, lumber measured and trimmed, and a frame raising party hosted for family and neighbors. The installation of an old fashioned stove keeps the work proceeding apace during one more winter and the family is in their newly completed home by springtime. The narrator, who considers herself integral to the success of the project, explains each step carefully, but as the audience takes in the wonderfully detailed, often humorous cartoon-styled pictures, they see what her words don't describe as well as what they do. Stating "My brother helps Dad carry the tools" doesn't quite capture the fact that the little guy "holds" the hammer while Dad holds him, nor does she mention that while Mom and Dad toil and sweat, she and her brother splash in a wading pool. Bean includes a note about his own parents' experience in house building, and although he admits he has only "vague memories of ladders and a cement mixer," he certainly will impel a few eager listeners to ask, "Can't we do that too?". EB. 48p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2013. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 11/01/2013 |
| 1. Bean draws on childhood memories to demonstrate the process of building a house, DIY-style. A little girl narrates the engaging and warm account; the steps are broken down into captions for half-page panels, while moments of greater import, such as setting the corners for the foundation, receive full- and double-page spreads. Family and friends make not just a house but a cozy home. bc. 48pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2013. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 11/19/2012 |
| Ages 3-6. Not unlike Dan Yaccarino did in All the Way to America, Bean (At Night) turns family history into something larger, in this case a romantic portrait of the rewards of diligence, teamwork, and a DIY mentality. In a concluding note accompanied by family photos, Bean explains that the story is based on his family's experience of building a farmhouse when he was a toddler. A sense of familial dedication and cohesiveness fills the pages, with narration coming from a character modeled after Bean's older sister. The pale, matte illustrations are a flurry of activity (and filled with the sort of construction details that children adore), as the family equips a trailer to serve as temporary digs, buys lumber, builds a foundation, hosts a frame-raising party, and eventually turns to interior work. Bean's pictures provide a supplementary visual narrative (Mom becomes pregnant, an infant appears), and the father offers suitably dadlike truisms like "The right tool for the right job" throughout. A warm look at the nuts and bolts of building a house and turning it into a home. Agent: Anna Webman, Curtis Brown. (Jan.). 48p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2012. |
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9780374380236,dl.it[0].title
| Review Citations |
| New York Times Book Review | 01/13/2013 |
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