In Front of My House
Gr 2-In an excursion that starts and ends with a little house on a hill, a child's imagination soars, moving from a rosebush and a bird outside to discover things "behind the window" and "in my room," including a book of fairy tales in which a dragon, a frog prince, and the Big Bad Wolf dwell, as well as the Abominable Snowman, a werewolf, a ghost, and a vampire. Finally, the adventure leads into outer space where sun and stars shine down on a calm ocean and then past zoo creatures and to the tiny house on the hill. While this small picture book is thick, the childlike text is brief-only two lines per spread-one introducing an item, the other prompting a page turn. Its size is perfect for one-on-one interaction, and youngsters will enjoy the twists and turns of the trip as they travel through the slightly scary land of fantastical creatures into surprising finds such as the child's teddy in Babette the Whale's belly or the tiny octopus head at the end of an "enormous tentacle." The illustrations, rendered in pencil crayon, are appropriately simple. They appear first on a white ground, then on black as the journey progresses into a cave and outer space, and then on white again for the return trip. This little gem has everything: text that will keep youngsters guessing as well as making up their own places to explore, and even an opportunity to make sense of those elusive prepositions. Don't miss this journey.-Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT (c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.