House Finds a Home

by Katy Duffield, Jen Corace (Illustrator)

Overview

Reminiscent of the children’s classic The Little House comes a picture book about a house and how the world changes both outside and inside of it over generations.

House has always loved the people inside. When they move out, House’s halls grow quiet, his windows dark. He hopes with all his shingles that there will be other inhabitants and joys to discover. As generations pass, House experiences new people and traditions and learns that love can come in many forms.

Reminiscent of the beloved children’s classic The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, Katy S. Duffield’s lyrical, heartwarming text and Jen Corace’s exquisite illustrations bring warmth and vulnerability to the different ways a house becomes a home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593204603
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	08/16/2022
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	958,948
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 12.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Katy S. Duffield is the author of more than thirty books for children. She lives in Arkansas in a house that’s full of love.

Jen Corace is the illustrator of many bestselling books for children, including Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Telephone by Mac Barnett. She has a BFA in illustration from Rhode Island School of Design, and she lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

Editorial Reviews

07/04/2022

A small house alternates heartbreak and happiness as multiple generations of residents fill his rooms with love in this cozy picture book. “House and his people/ had made a mountain of memories—// Song by song./ Giggle by giggle./ Hug by hug,” Duffield writes. When the homeowners depart, House’s heart feels “as empty as his rooms,” until new owners arrive. As the cycle repeats, House learns to embrace the adage “when one door closes, another door opens.” Matching the text’s polish, Corace’s diminutive dollhouse-style cutaways, rendered in gouache, ink, and pencil, add a narrative layer via art that depicts the period-specific lifestyles of varying occupants, presented with varied skin tones. Record albums occupy the first family, a box TV entertains the next, and later residents install a peace-sign-adorned flag, until a final family, intergenerational and interracial, joyously brings the story full circle, “song by song./ Giggle by giggle./ Hug by hug.” Ages 3–7. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

07/08/2022

PreS-Gr 1—This picture book follows a family-occupied home through decades of changes. The first line—"You might think/ houses don't have hearts./ But House had one./ And it was broken"—immediately sets up sympathy, as House says goodbye to its first family. Readers care about the house, and rejoice as it learns to literally open itself up to love. The illustrations perfectly highlight the house's journey, a feast for the brain, an I-spy extravaganza of changing colors, light fixtures, furniture, and bustling activity. It's joyous watching the families shift in size and shape, seeing occupants fill up the cross-sectioned rooms with music and light and action. The space around the house also fills up, neighbors and new streets surrounding the main detail of the house. ​VERDICT A wonderful romp through history, morphing styles, and the importance of opening up to change; a recommended purchase, ideal for story hours.—Cat McCarrey

School Library Journal

2022-05-11
A house shares life and love with every family that lives within.

When House’s family moves away, his once-full heart breaks. He’d been there with them while they made lots of happy memories, and when they leave, it becomes quiet, and House feels alone. Eventually another family moves in, and he becomes exactly what they need him to be, until they leave. More families come and go; some stay for a while, and every family is a little different, but all of them enter with exactly what House is missing when he’s alone: love. It’s clear that it’s the people who make House a home, and when his latest family comes, they bring with them the opportunity for House to help them make new happy memories. Though it’s sad when a family leaves, House realizes something important: “When one door closes, another opens.” The way House becomes a home for the various families is conveyed through the physical changes outside and inside as well as through the various functions each family has for different rooms. House’s inhabitants vary in age and race. Bright and warmly textured, the illustrations are simple but brim with cozy details. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A new way to appreciate “home sweet home.” (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews