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.

The Ramble Shamble Children by Christina Soontornvat

DOWN THE MOUNTAIN, PAST THE LAST CURVE IN THE ROAD,

FIVE CHILDREN LIVED TOGETHER IN A RAMBLE SHAMBLE HOUSE.

The big sister, Meera, tended the vegetable garden, the twins Locky and Rooze kept the crows out of the carrot and pea patch, Finn fed the hens and collected the eggs from the chicken coop, and little Jory the baby played in the mud puddle. There was always work to do, but the children shared the jobs, and at night they all piled into Meera's bed to listen to the stories she knew about dragons, giants, and all sorts. But then, in a ramble in the attic, they found an old book with a picture of a well-kept house and garden.

"OH, SO THAT'S WHAT A PROPER HOUSE AND GARDEN LOOKS LIKE!" SAID MEERA.

The next morning the children set to work. They placed a wreath on the freshly painted red door. Finn propered up the chicken coop with a porch and some pink paint. They tidied up the garden, replacing carrots with roses. They spiffed up the mud puddle, much to Jory's displeasure. And the place did look more... well, proper.

BUT THINGS WERE NOT QUITE RIGHT.

The hens were unhappy and laid their eggs in the children's shoes. There were no peas and carrots for a proper supper, and the roses were too thorny to pick. And little Jory, without a messy daily dip in the puddle, was missing.

A proper search party found Jory deep in the woods, happily dabbling in a nice new puddle.

So the children un-propered the house, un-spiffied the hen house, and un-tidied the garden, and re-muddied the puddle. All was well again.

And by bedtime the ramble-shamble house was a happy home once more, in Newbery-winner Christina Soontgornvat's latest picture book fantasy, The Ramble Shamble Children (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2021), illustrated in fanciful folkloric style by noted artist Lauren Castillo. This story joins the like of Gertrude Chandler Warner's series, The Boxcar Children Bookshelf (The Boxcar Children Mysteries, Books 1-12) and Astrid Lindgren's redoubtable Pippi Longstocking, who seem to function properly, thank you, in a parentless family. In a starred review, School Library Journal says, “No need to ‘proper up’ anything about this winning title. Soontornvat and Castillo have produced a charming tale of ‘ramble shamble’ delightfulness."

Seriously Seeking Housing! Jack by Tomie dePaola

ONE DAY JACK SAID, "I WANT TO SEE THE WORLD AND MAKE NEW FRIENDS AND LIVE IN A HOUSE IN THE CITY."

"WHY DON'T YOU GO TO THE CITY AND ASK THE KING?" SAID JACK'S GRANDPA.

Since time immemorial, young folks have set out into the wide world to find their fortunes, to make their way in their own way, and in his adaptation of folklore's "Jack tales," Caldecott-winner Tomie dePaola's Jack (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014) is off on his personal quest.

Jack is a mellow redhead who soon attracts a following, beginning with a tiny yellow chick who peeps out a greeting and scoots along behind Jack. In short order, a duck spots the small procession and asks if he can go along.

"YES, PLEASE DO!" JACK SAID.

With his peeping and quacking friends behind him, Jack soon welcomes a retinue of animals, a goose, dog, frog, pig, cow, cat, sheep, horse and owl, and even a crow who flies along without asking permission. With all the honking, woofing, croaking, oinking, mooing, meowing, baaing, whinnying, hooting and cawing, Jack's reputation precedes him as he enters the city.

"GOOD AFTERNOON, KING," SAID JACK.

"MY FRIENDS AND I WOULD LIKE TO LIVE IN THE CITY. CAN YOU HELP US FIND A HOUSE?"

Fortune smiles on Jack as usual. It seems that there is a run-down house in one neighborhood that needs a tenant to sort it out.

"YOU MIGHT NEED TO FIX IT UP, BUT I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT."  SAID THE KING.

The house is dilapidated, but soon the critter cacophony is joined by the sound of sawing and hammering, and when the house is repainted in a bright pink and orange coat of paint, the animals find that each one of them has his own window on the street. Peeps, quacks, honks woofs, ribbits, oinks, moos, meows, baas, neighs, hoots, and caws (from the roof) fill the street with happy noise.

"THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD," GRUMBLED THE NEIGHBORHOOD CURMUDGEON.

"ABOUT TIME!" SAID HIS WIFE.

In a light-hearted palette and his familiar folkloric style, Tomie dePaola's latest introduces primary students to the Jack tale. In the many tales in English literature, Jack is a sort of everyboy, eager to try his luck in the world, best known in the classic Jack and the Beanstalk.

In this simple tale, there are no giants or ogres, just an amiable lad setting out on a modest quest. But getting there is half the fun, and dePaola populates the background behind Jack's little parade with many folktale characters setting off into their own adventures--Jack and Jill with their pail and Red Riding Hood heading off the path and into the wood--which will give sharp-eyed readers a chuckle with each page turn. DePaola has a way of giving each of his stories its own irresistible eye appeal, and he pulls out all the stops in this lovely book, filling the pages with colorful rubber stamp interjections from his animal characters and setting his glowing colors as standouts against his characteristic bright white pages. In this playful introduction to English folk literature, dePaola shows that he's still the master of picture book art.