Building Our House

by Jonathan Bean, Jonathan Bean (Illustrator)

Overview

Perfect for the little builders in your life, this warm-hearted and unique picture book is all about “building a house and turning it into a home” (Publishers Weekly), inspired by award-winning author-illustrator Jonathan Bean’s own childhood.

In this can’t-miss book for kids who love tools, trucks, and all things construction-related, readers join a girl and her family as they pack up their old house in town and set out to build a new one in the country. Mom and Dad are going to make the new house themselves, from the ground up, with a helping hand from their lucky kiddos. From empty lot to finished home, every stage of their year-and-a-half-long building project is captured here—page after page brimming with machines, vehicles, and all kinds of house-making activities!

As he imagines it through the eyes of his older sister, Building Our House is Jonathan Bean’s retelling of his own family’s true experience building their home, and includes an author’s note with real-life family photographs.

“Raise the roof for this picture book. It's something special.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Did you love Building Our House? Then pick up a copy of This Is My Home, This Is My School, another autobiographically inspired picture book from Jonathan Bean about the special rhythms and routines of a homeschooling family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374380236
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	01/08/2013
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	125,051
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 12.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD640L (what's this?)
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 and works in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His first book, At Night, won the 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and he is also the illustrator of two acclaimed picture books by Lauren Thompson, The Apple Pie That Papa Baked and One Starry Night. Jonathan's parents still live in the house the family built, outside of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

This vision of an entire family working together to create a life and a place in the world is as satisfyingly solid as the stone foundation upon which their home is built.

The Washington Post - Krisi Elle Jemtegaard

…wonderful…The book, with its detailed images of playful children, nerdy father, bespectacled mom and snoozy cat…is suffused with the cozy self-sufficiency of a Laura Ingalls Wilder tale. Children will enjoy the comforting solidity of shoring up foundations and sawing strong boards.

The New York Times Book Review - Rebecca Traister

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. Ages 3–6. Agent: Anna Webman, Curtis Brown. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Winner of the Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Best Picture Book

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Selection

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year

“Children ages 3–10 who already like tools and diggers aren't the only ones who will respond to the warmth and optimism in these clear, detailed, gently color-washed pages.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Shot through with pioneer spirit . . . Bean's terrific illustrations show a loving family, living in a mobile home as they gather lumber and pour concrete . . . Children will enjoy the comforting solidity of shoring up foundations and sawing strong boards.” —The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

“Raise the roof for this picture book. It's something special.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

“Lovingly told, this captivating tale will help satisfy a child's curiosity of what it takes to create a building from scratch.” —School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

“Bean creates an engaging story as well as a glimpse into a warm family setting.” —The Horn Book, STARRED REVIEW

“A warm look at the nuts and bolts of building a house and turning it into a home.” —Publishers Weekly

“Wonderfully detailed, often humorous.” —BCCB

“What's heartwarming throughout is the depiction of a tight-knit family (‘My family makes up a strong crew of four').” —Booklist

From the Publisher

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

School Library Journal

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)

Kirkus Reviews