My House Is Singing

by Betsy R. Rosenthal, Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Illustrator)

Overview

Has your smoke detector ever tattled on you when you burned the toast? Does your sticky back door get the best of you? Do you have a secret hideaway where you keep your private treasures? Told from a child's perspective, the poems in this affectionate collection celebrate everything that makes each house a unique and special place.

From waking up in a cozy bedroom on a chilly morning to exploring a garage full of fascinating junk, this intimate house tour proves there's no place like home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547563770
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/01/2004
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	35 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Before she began writing children’s books, Betsy Rosenthal was a lawyer for a national civil rights agency. She left that career behind to raise her three children and concentrate on her writing. She is the author of three picture books: My House Is Singing, It’s Not Worth Making a Tzimmes Over!, and Which Shoes Would You Choose? Looking for Me is her first novel.Ms. Rosenthal has also had many essays published in national and local newspapers and magazines.  To learn more about Ms. Rosenthal, you can visit her at www.BetsyRosenthal.com.

MARGARET CHODOS-IRVINE is the author and illustrator of Best Best Friends and Ella Sarah Gets Dressed, a Caldecott Honor Book. She also illustrated Apple Pie Fourth of July,Hide and Seek, and Buzz, all by Janet S. Wong, Once Around the Sun by Susan Marie Swanson, Only You by Robin Cruise, and My House Is Singing by Betsy R. Rosenthal. Margaret Chodos-Irvine lives in Seattle, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 3-A collection of short poems about what's in a child's house. Subjects include the piano, the laundry room, a door that is stuck, etc. The accompanying illustrations are done with watercolors and an effective stamping or woodblock technique. Some of the selections are in rhyme, while others are in free verse; they vary in quality. "My Hideaway" introduces the idea of a place where one can be alone: "And just behind that my-size door/there is a place where I can store/my rocks, my bugs, my diamond rings,/and lots of other private things." "My Bedroom Slippers," which depends on common and static images, is less successful: "They lie/beside my bed,/waiting/for my icy toes/to wake them up." Nevertheless, the book is acceptable as a supplemental purchase. David L. Harrison's Alligator in the Closet (Boyds Mills, 2003) and Dee Lillegard's Wake Up, House! (Knopf, 2000) both have a similar theme.-Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

In a set of poetic observations written with a child's voice and sensibility, Rosenthal celebrates a house's nooks and crannies, furnishings, noises, decorations, and general coziness. Caldecott Honor-winner Chodos-Irvine captures the writer's ruminative tone with blocky, semi-abstract prints, done in vibrant colors and depicting a child of indeterminate race posed comfortably in pleasantly untidy domestic settings. The poems share a theme, but vary in form-and also mood, from a tongue-in-cheek inventory of "The Stuff Place" ("I've heard that garages / are built for cars. / There's never been room / for one in ours") to frustration at a stuck back door, plus shaped observations of a "Tired Light Bulb," and a trail of "Ants!" in the kitchen. A confident debut for Rosenthal, and a strong follow-up for a talented award-winner. (Picture book/poetry. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews