The House That's Your Home

December 8, 2014
Lloyd-Jones (Bunny’s First Spring) and Dyer (Time for Bed) offer a reflective appreciation of the treasured people, objects, and routines in a child’s life. Throughout, a redheaded, rosy-cheeked girl is seen in and around her family’s bucolic countryside house—playing with the family pets, quietly reading on a window seat, watering flowers in a verdant garden—before the story moves on to her world beyond, as she plays with friends at school and walks in the park with her grandparents. Writing in second person, Lloyd-Jones maintains a calming, affirming tone as she drives home themes of belonging and ownership (“A book is Your Book/ And a ball is Your Ball/ And they are Your Things“). While a sense of safety and security resounds, thanks in no small part to Dyer’s lovely gouache-and-pencil illustrations, this is a narrow, privileged vision of home (many readers will not have their own rooms, two-parent homes, bikes, tree swings, etc.). Some children will find this book comforting; others may be left with a sense of the gulf between their lives and the idyllic one seen on page. Ages 3–7. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown.

November 15, 2014
Lloyd-Jones and Dyer introduce children to the concept of "self" in relation to "place." A little redheaded girl is gradually made aware of the expanding boundaries of her world, from the familiar and immediate environment of her house to the schoolyard and beyond, culminating with the world: "On the ground where you stand / In a place of Your Own / In the world / That's Your Home." Throughout this catalog of the mundane, the language ranges from lyrical ("And the sun rising up / Is the light of Your Eyes") to pedestrian, even monotonous ("A cat is Your Cat / And a dog is Your Dog / And they are Your Pets"). Whenever something or someone associated with the child is named, the word "your" and the subsequent noun are capitalized: "Your Tree," "Your Life" and "Your Grandpa." This emphasis on the possessive pronoun is mystifying and feels overdone, unless the intent is to reassure an insecure child-which this chubby-cheeked preschooler does not appear to be. Dyer's soft gouache and pencil illustrations are extensions of the soothing tone set by the author and are poetic in their own right, depicting an idealized Caucasian family in an appealing Craftsman-style rural home. They cannot, however, compensate for the needlessly drawn-out text, which is almost too long for the intended age group. Visually beautiful but conceptually off the mark. (Picture book. 3-5)

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January 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 1-A house is just a building, but a home is made up of all the pieces on the inside. Lloyd-Jones tells the tale of a young girl and the parts that make up her home in rhythmic, hand-lettered text. The story builds on repetition and travels through a day with the main character, inside her home and further into her community. "And your Swing is to swing you./Right up to the sky/Up over the wall/Up, up till you see/Swallows and cornfields/And tractors and sheep/And the world that is waiting below." Dyer's gouache and pencil pictures include a balanced variation of spreads and closer images with greater white space behind them. The images reveal the finer details of a young child's life and draw together the broad story line. Although the words are charming and the pictures are captivating, the book does paint a very privileged, middle-class version of what constitutes a home. According to this title, it means having a full family, a large house, a yard with a swings- et, a bike, lots of toys, and much more. For communities that can relate to this standard of living, this selection will be well received as a read aloud.-Megan Egbert, Meridian Library District, ID

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2015
In a picture book that feels at once nostalgic and fresh, Lloyd-Jones and Dyer channel the best of contemporary mood pieces (see, for example, Scanlon and Frazee's All the World, rev. 9/09) and the everyday-life books of yesteryear (such as Krauss and Sendak's A Hole Is to Dig, rev. 10/52). A familiar home-away-home structure follows a little girl from the "house that's [her] home" to school and back again, as she engages with her family, pets, and the world all around her (in a refreshing twist, it concludes with the child awakening to a new day instead of drifting off to sleep). Throughout, a soothing, rhythmic text embraces childlike phrasing with lines such as "A bike is Your Bike / That rides you around" and hits just-right notes to capture the happiest parts of childhood's emotional landscape: "A friend is Your Friend / Who stays by your side / And chooses you first / And saves you a place." There are no tears or hardships in sight, and Dyer's soft gouache and pencil illustrations perfectly match the text's depiction of childhood idyll. The graceful hand lettering adds much to the book's pleasing design, and its clear readability will be a boon to adults who will doubtlessly engage in repeated readings with children in their own homes. megan dowd lambert

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