Farmhouse - Hardcover

Blackall, Sophie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316528943 ISBN 13: 9780316528948

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2022

Synopsis

Two-time Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall invites readers to peek through windows that shine like real glass on this lavish book’s cover, and explore the dollhouse-like world of a beloved farmhouse where twelve children were born and raised.

Over a hill, at the end of a road, by a glittering stream that twists and turns stands a farmhouse.

Step inside the dollhouse-like interior of Farmhouse and relish in the daily life of the family that lives there, rendered in impeccable, thrilling detail. Based on a real family and an actual farmhouse where Sophie salvaged facts and artifacts for the making of this spectacular work, page after page bursts with luminous detail and joy. Join the award-winning, best-selling Sophie Blackall as she takes readers on an enchanting visit to a farmhouse across time, to a place that echoes with stories.

About this title

About the Author

Sophie Blackall has illustrated dozens of beautiful books including the Caldecott Medal-winning titles Hello Lighthouse and Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick. She is also the proprietor of Milkwood, a creative retreat housed in a restored dairy barn, adjacent to a falling-down house upon which this book is based. When not at the farm, she lives with her family in Brooklyn, NY.  She invites you to visit her on Instagram @SophieBlackall.

 

Reviews

PreS-Gr 3—For most readers, a life in tune with the rhythms of nature on a family farm in the countryside is remote prospect; Blackall's gorgeous book changes that, by transporting children back to life in the 19th century on a dairy farm, where a family with 12 children lives in a white clapboard house. The detailed illustrated spreads show daily scenes at home and on the farm; some of these interiors are reminiscent of Grant Wood's painting "Dinner for Threshers," whereby one outside wall of the farmhouse has been removed offering a glimpse of the interior lives of the family. There is the wood stove in the kitchen, an upright piano in the parlor, quilts in the bedrooms, and homemade wallpaper. The text is one long, poetic sentence that wanders from misbehaving children to contented cows to nighttime dreams to the eventual abandonment of the farm and its reclamation by nature. Blackall has drawn inspiration for the book from an actual house in upstate New York and has begun all her augmented collage illustrations by using fragments of found objects from the farmhouse, including wallpaper, handmade dresses, and catalog advertisements. VERDICT A love letter to the joys of country living and family life as well as the importance of treasuring the past and all its stories.—Sally A. James

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316528943
• ISBN 13: 9780316528948
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48