![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The old-fashioned, sepia-toned endpapers fill in more of the story: a very satisfying before-and-after progression, a la Virginia Lee Burton. The story begins on the title page (packing up their city house) by the next spread (which also incorporates the copyright page), the family has left the city behind, well out into the country. The use of the full run of the book’s real estate.And each individual illustration is tightly composed and carefully planned. Each picture connects to the one before and the one after, whether it’s one of six separate vignettes or a full page, or something in between. The book is about solid, carefully planned and -executed construction, and the line and watercolor wash art - while in a loose, relaxed style - is equally purposive, with the illustrations taking us step-by-step from the day the family moves out of their house in the city to the day they move into their new home. The integration of subject and treatment. ![]() Appropriately, it’s larger than average (after all, they are building a HOUSE). Here are things I appreciate about the book, some of which I saw right away and some of which ( thanks, Robin) I noticed only after repeated viewings/readings (it’s hard work pretending to be on the Caldecott committee!): Jonathan Bean’s Building Our House came out way back in January, so everyone probably knows by now that the book is based on a true story: the author’s parents (the ultimate DIYers) built the Bean family homestead from scratch while living in a trailer and raising three small children (!). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |