Home Making: House Mouse by Michael Hall

ONE CHILLY MORNING, A MOUSE TRAVELED....

The Mouse climbed up and over a high hill, and paddled across a wide stream and wandered into a patch of wild asparagus, and spots ...

SOMETHING WARM AND WELCOME.

It was a warm, welcoming fire. But it needed something to keep it in, so she made...

A STOVE!

The stove keeps the fire going and the mouse went...

WHERE THE CHILLINESS WASN'T...

and the fox won't go near the place where the fire is. So Mouse builds a beautiful stone floor for the stove, and then a strong wooden roof to keep keep her fire dry and her asparagus soup simmering on the stove. But she still needs something.

And when one night when she heard a sound...

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK,

Nobody was there until Mouse builds a strong wooden door to open. And at the door there were weary wanderers who needed to be inside, with a sack of veggies that needed making into soup.

And they did.

And the House Mouse is always happy to welcome all to sit by her warm fire, in author-illustrator Michael Hall's latest picture book, House Mouse (Harper/Greenwillow, 2021). In his trademark geometric mixed media art, Michael Hall has his character craft his own home to express the wise words that it takes a lot of living to make a house a home. Creating a home takes hard work and like a good soup, just the right ingredients and someone with whom to love the house and savor the soup.

Says Horn Book's reviewer, "Hall’s use of onomatopoeia and geometric shapes (a triangle for the mouse’s body; rectangles for the house’s frame and floor) naturally emphasize and extend the construction theme. . . . . This tale of a mouse and her house is aglow with tenacity, generosity, and good cheer.” For more of Michael Hall's storytelling magic, see some of his other noted pictured books, Wonderfall, and My Heart Is Like a Zoo and Red: A Crayon's Story.

Making a World: What We'll Build--Plans for Our Together Future by Oliver Jeffers

WHAT SHALL WE BUILD, YOU AND I?

I'LL BUILD YOUR WORLD AND YOU'LL BUILD MINE.

WE'LL BUILD A WATCH TO KEEP THE TIME.

A father wants a place to keep his little daughter safe. He has his red toolbox--with hammers, saws, pliers, nails and screws, and all the rest--and with the urge to protect, he builds first a stout red door and a doorstep. But he knows she needs more--more rooms, strong brick walls, a roof to shelter her.

But that is not enough to keep them safe, so he digs an underground shelter... just in case. Or perhaps a castle, where they can cower in the keep while frightful figures (a Viking, a witch and a dentist) scale the crenellated walls? Or perhaps they are not in danger, so he'll build a welcoming table inside for all that come?

Perhaps he can devise an ocean liner that won't sink in a storm? Or perhaps he can build a faraway getaway.... a tiny house by a pond?

A PLACE TO STAY WHEN ALL IS LOST,

TO KEEP THE THINGS WE LOVE THE MOST.

But by this time both are weary and perhaps too tired to do more than build a fire to get them through the night.

THEN WE'LL SAY GOOD NIGHT,

AS ALL'S ALL RIGHT.

In his latest picture book, What We'll Build: Plans For Our Together Future (Philomel Books, 2020), the best-selling and award-winning author-illustrator Oliver Jeffers has a book for parent and child to share quietly. Jeffers' rhyming text and witty illustrations, executed with his signature lovely lines and little red fox, and his wide palette of colors--from cerise to coral, lavender to lilac, magenta and mauve--will please preschool and primary students, but this book is really one written for sharing between parent and child who together are building their own world. As School Library Journal says, "An intensely personal statement of intergenerational fellowship."

Busy Snakes Build? Snakes on the Job by Kathryn Dennis

Who knew snakes build playgrounds?

OFF TO WORK THE SNAKES WILL GO.

Yessss! Snakes put on their hard hatssss and grab their sssshovelssss.

They take the wheelssss off their truckssss.

They steer backhoessss, climb into cranessss, and drive big bulldozerssss. They sssshift their gearssss, pull their leverssss and hit their brakessss.

They sssshovel the dirt up into dump truckssss.

A CRANE LIFTS LARGE OBJECTS AND SWINGS THEM INTO PLACE.

SNAKES SAY YESSSSSSSSSSSH!

Brought to you by the Letter S, just for toddlers and preschoolers who love big construction equipment, Kathryn Dennis' newest, Snakes on the Job (Feiwal and Friends, 2020), delivers the big machines they favor, illustrated in pastel profiles, all steered by cute snakes in yellow hard hats, busy on the construction ssssite of a brand-new playground. Playful artwork also shows the hard-working snakes disporting themselves at last in their new park--sssswinging, ssssee-sawing, and of course ssslipping down the new, slippery ssssliding boards. Simple text makes this book a choice for emergent readers, and for speech students, this story delivers plenty of practice on those sibillant syllables in spadessss.

Share this one with Dennis' previous busy serpent book, Snakes on a Train and the perennially best-selling Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site (Board Book for Toddlers, Children’s Board Book).