The Little House (Sandpiper Books)
"Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country. She  was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built." So begins Virginia  Lee Burton's classicThe Little House,winner of the prestigious Caldecott Medal  in 1943. The rosy-pink Little House, on a hill surrounded by apple trees, watches the days  go, by from the first apple blossoms in the spring through the winter snows. Always  faintly aware of the city's distant lights, she starts to notice the city encroaching on her  bucolic existence. First a road appears, which brings horseless carriages and then trucks  and steamrollers. Before long, more roads, bigger homes, apartment buildings, stores, and  garages surround the Little House. Her family moves out and she finds herself alone in  the middle of the city, where the artificial lights are so bright that the Little House can no  longer see the sun or the moon. She often dreams of "the field of daisies and the  apple trees dancing in the moonlight." Children will be saddened to see the lonely,  claustrophobic, dilapidated house, but when a woman recognizes her and whisks her back  to the country where she belongs, they will rejoice. Young readers are more likely to be  drawn in by the whimsical, detailed drawings and the happy ending than by anything  Burton might have been implying about the troubling effects of urbanization.(Ages 3  to 6)--This text refers to thePaperbackedition.