New House

by Dave Wheeler, Dave Wheeler (Illustrator)

Overview

Prepare your toddler for moving day with this board book exploring the novelty of a new home balanced with the comfort of familial love.

A new bathtub, a new bedroom, and new fears are followed by the same parents, same hugs, and same comfort. Blending curiosity with comfort, the novelty of a new home is depicted through the wonderment of a two-year-old in this beautifully illustrated board book for readers under 3. With text crafted in simple two-word phrases and action-packed visuals, this moving day book is custom-made for the youngest relocators, providing them with a catharsis through information, humor, and a satisfying resolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593224922
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	02/23/2021
Pages:	34
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.79(d)
Age Range:	1 - 3 Years

About the Author

Dave Wheeler is an illustrator living in Seattle, Washington. He has freelanced for many magazines, newspapers, and advertising agencies, and has developed his own projects, including original art, toys, websites, and picture books. Dave has a certificate in Writing for Children from the University of Washington, a BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts, and is a member of SCBWI. He likes to run, ski, bake bread, eat good chocolate, and read about almost anything—especially inventors and dead presidents.

Editorial Reviews

2021-05-19
A board book for adults seeking to reassure a toddler about a move to a new house.

The moving truck arrives, and a little blond toddler tumbles out; they’ve arrived at the “new house.” The book goes on to show and name in simple two-word phrases all the new things the protagonist will encounter: “new door”; “new doorstop”; “new dustpan”; “new dirt!”; “new mess!” Readers will see how the new dirt and new mess are getting spread around the “new carpet,” “new kitchen,” and “new staircase” all the way up and into the “new tub!” Up to this point it’s all sweet and endearing, but then comes “new nighttime.” The illustrations are now done in different shades of dark blue, and the shadows cast by the railing around the toddler’s crib look eerily like prison bars. “New shadows,” “new noises,” and especially “new dark!” are outright scary. Seeking to reassure the toddler that in spite of all the new things in this “new house” the important things have not changed, the text shifts to introduce the “same mommy,” “same daddy,” “same songs,” “same hugs,” “same monkey,” and “same blankey.” Yet even in the next-to-last spread, when the protagonist has now settled down and is back to sleep (“same night-night”), the illustration with its dark colors and jaillike feel does not feel comforting at all. All family members appear White.

There are better ways of reassuring toddlers. (Board book. 2-3)

Kirkus Reviews