The Hidden House - Hardcover

Waddell, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 076360335X ISBN 13: 9780763603359

Publisher: Candlewick, 1997

Synopsis

Bruno, a lonely old man, creates three dolls and sits them on the window sill facing outside to keep him company while he works in his garden, but one day he leaves and never returns, causing his house, dolls, and garden to change.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3-- An old man living in a cottage fashions three large wooden dolls to keep him company. One day Bruno leaves and doesn't return. Slowly everything changes. The dolls are mute but interested observers as spiders spin webs and mice scurry around. After many years a man and his family rediscover the hidden house and work to revive it. The man's little girl finds the dolls and carefully repairs them. Barrett's watercolors give the book a soft, sweet, almost Victorian look, in keeping with Waddell's simple and charming story. A wry attitude throughout balances realism and fantasy; the print is large and, without compromising the integrity of the story, the vocabulary is simple enough for second graders to handle. In outline it seems like an extremely simple story, but it is handled with wit and delicacy by both the writer and the artist to create a very satisfying whole. --Judith Gloyer, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

With its Laura Ashley-style endpapers and country flowers, Waddell's quiet tale of three solemn dolls is elegantly illustrated. A lonely man carves three dolls to keep him company, and when he moves away, the dolls watch from the window as weeds and brambles run wild and their "little house disappeared in the middle of green things." A tree grows in the deserted kitchen, and insects and small animals take refuge from the winter cold. Now it is the dolls who are lonely until--many years later--a family moves in; the daughter paints new faces on the dolls, who are happy to have "a whole family to live with" again. The haunting and strangely animating presence of the dolls, the exquisite details of landscapes and interior scenes and the delicacy of Barrett's watercolors lend grace to this enchanting story about the passing of time and seasons. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 076360335X
• ISBN 13: 9780763603359
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Barrett Angela
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 32