A HOME AGAIN by Colleen Rowan Kosinski, illustrated by Valeria Docampo (Two Lions; 11/1): “The expert use of light and dark creates beautiful, emotional contrasts of warmth and isolation—a wonderful match of both verbal and visual tone…Heartfelt and filled with possible connections for families.” —Kirkus Reviews
After the last brick is laid, a family moves into a brand-new house. As the family grows, the house delights in the sound of laughter echoing in its halls and the pitter-patter of little feet traversing its floors and realizes it is no longer just a house. It has become a home—their home. One day, the family packs up, and with tears in their eyes, they say goodbye. The house doesn’t know if it can ever be happy again until a special couple appears and it begins to feel a sliver of hope. Perhaps it can become a home once more…
Told from the perspective of a house, this story’s heartfelt text and beautiful illustrations convey a warmth of feeling as two families change and grow at different times within the same four walls.
Reviews:
Kirkus
A house loses its inhabitants and longs to be loved again.
Bricks laid and timbers trembling, a newly built house eagerly awaits its first residents: a White family of four (soon to be five) with pets. From the “pitter-patter of a baby’s tiny feet” to the “sweet scent of bread baking,” the house delights in being used and loved year after year. The house revels in the “bustle of activity” as its residents grow up and age until, one day, the family moves away. Confused and hurt, the house keeps prospective buyers away by shaking its roof shingles and creaking its front steps. Finally realizing the family will never return, the house eventually opens its doors—and heart—to an interracial gay couple. The pair not only renovates the place, but starts their own family in its walls. Though comparisons to Virginia Lee Burton’s classic The Little House (1942) are inevitable, Kosinski’s text gives this house a chance to speak for itself. The contemplative narrative voice achieves the delicate balance of being sentimental without becoming maudlin. Docampo’s colorful double-page spreads delightfully extend the text with small details. Her stylized human figures, small against the grandeur of the house’s rooms and furniture, can be difficult to make out. Yet the expert use of light and dark creates beautiful, emotional contrasts of warmth and isolation—a wonderful match of both verbal and visual tone.
Heartfelt and filled with possible connections for families. (Picture book. 3-7)
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