★ 11/24/2014
Ellis’s quiet, folk-naif exploration of the idea of “home” may invite comparison to Hoberman’s A House Is a House for Me, but hers is a different journey. She starts in the real world—“Home is a house in the country. Or home is an apartment”—but drifts into memory and fantasy. A long-ago schoolbook might have been the source for the explorer’s ship greeted by Native Americans: “Some homes are boats. Some homes are wigwams.” Storybook scenes abound—a Mughal palace, a thieves’ lair, a sunken Atlantian ruin. A tiny Russian kitchen crowded with dishes bears the legend, “A babushka lives here.” On the facing page is a living room with craters and a familiar-looking planet out the window: “A Moonian lives here.” The final pages show Ellis (Stagecoach Sal) in her studio, at work on the painting that opens the book. “An artist lives here,” she writes, revealing a secret. “This is my home, and this is me.” It’s a work that confers classic gifts: time to look and time to wonder. “Where is your home?” she asks. “Where are you?” Ages 4–8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Feb.)
Arrestingly illustrated... Ellis, in her picture-book debut, draws with simplicity and precision, yet there are often so many fanciful details that second and third looks will come naturally. ... The whole effect makes the pictures seem like frameable art.
—Booklist (starred review)
It’s a work that confers classic gifts: time to look and time to wonder.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
[Ellis'] sly humor and irreverent spirit only endear her to kids and grown-ups alike.
—The New York Times
Ellis' compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. ... Visually accomplished.
—Kirkus Reviews
A dreamy, painterly meditation on the diversity and range of dwellings around the world and across time and imagination. ... The text encourages the reader to participate (“But whose home is this? And what about this?”), and the cover illustration further extends the options of where we can live. All the choices are warmly inviting.
—The Horn Book
A simple yet deep look at homes... This is a great vocabulary builder as you talk about all the homes — what makes them the same and what makes them different.
—Chicago Tribune
A stunner.
—The Wall Street Journal
Enchanting and accessible, "Home" is an instant classic for the K-3 set and a thoughtful Northwest-grown gift.
—Seattle Times
In her beautiful and inviting solo debut, Home, Carson Ellis (Wildwood series artist) illustrates the many different kinds of homes that humans and animals—past, present and even fictional—might inhabit.
—Shelf Awareness
Skillfully rendered and artistically pleasing.
—School Library Journal
Charming.
—Apartment Therapy
06/01/2015
K-Gr 2—The realistic, fanciful, and stereotypical merge in this picture book homage to the place we call home. Gouache-and-ink art featuring warm, earthy colors with splashes or spots of red illustrate the hand-lettered, simple text ("Home is a house in the country. Or home is an apartment." and later, "Sea homes. Bee homes. Hollow tree homes."). Familiar and unfamiliar (Kenya) and sometimes magical (Atlantis) settings inhabited by humans, animals, and mythical beings are included. The illustrations offer much to pore over and connections to be made. The dove that appears on the title page can be found throughout the book and the silhouette in an upstairs window of the house that appears on the first spread, reveals itself to be the hat of a girl on the final pages. The penultimate scene is that of an artist in her home surrounded by items familiar to readers (a weathervane, figure of a house, a ship in a bottle and a globe, and a piece of black-and-white fabric, and a pointed cap). These objects will give observant children pause and send them back to page one to see what other details and images are carried throughout the story. However, the Mideastern lair, the Japanese businessman's geometric home, a wigwam, and a pagoda, may give others pause for different reasons. VERDICT While skillfully rendered and artistically pleasing, this eclectic assortment of domiciles is hardly representational and is less than ideal for classroom usage.—Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal
2014-11-18
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy's Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of "home."Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases "some folks" who "live on the road"; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis' compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: "Who in the world lives here? / And why?" (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis' chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. "Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams." A sailing ship's crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon. Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)
