The House I'll Build for the Wrens - Hardcover

Neitzel, Shirley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688149731 ISBN 13: 9780688149734

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 1997

Synopsis

Cumulative verses with rebuses describe all the tools that a young boy borrows from his mother's toolbox to make a birdhouse

About this title

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2. Another of this team's books, written in the "This Is the House That Jack Built" style. Rebus-filled cumulative verses list the necessary construction materials and tools as a boy sets out to build a birdhouse. Just as the industrious young carpenter is applying blue paint, he is greeted by his mother. She looks at the mess and readers can see that this project has not been authorized. With the help of the dog and cat, the busy narrator puts everything back and wipes up the excess paint. Only then do the child and his mother go out and attach the creation to the tree. "You've built a fine house for the wrens," says Mother. Parker's watercolor, colored-pencil, and pen illustrations are droll extensions of the spare text. The subject is a familiar one and it is handled well; however, the text, forced into the rhyme with rebus format, is a little stiff and awkward.?Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 4^-8. Designed as a rebus, this appealing book offers a wonderful opportunity for children to learn the names of carpentry tools, see initiative at work, and have some fun at the same time. The spunky, cumulative rhyme starts with a little boy holding up plans for the wren house he plans to build; it then goes on as he identifies each item he will use to construct it. Left-hand pages contain nicely sized, crisply outlined pictures of the essentials--the toolbox, the boards, the hammer and nails, and the brush and paints. Opposite is the rebus, with pictures of the tools smoothly worked into the verse, which appears in large, dark type. When the rebus finally swells to fill a page, the format smoothly changes to one that's more traditional. Mom and baby sister arrive home just in time to watch cleanup and help the little carpenter hang his satisfying--albeit unusual--creation. From the cheerful, rhyming text to the fetching art, this is a winner in every way. Stephanie Zvirin

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0688149731
• ISBN 13: 9780688149734
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Parker Nancy Winslow