Our Old House - Hardcover

Vizurraga, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805039112 ISBN 13: 9780805039115

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 1997

Synopsis

"As her parents restore an old house, a young girl hears stories about the people who used to live there, and she imagines what their home was like.... Dreamy, light-filled watercolor paintings extend the quiet, poetic text with pictures that connect present and past." --Booklist

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3. Nostalgic, wistful language sets the tone for this quiet picture book. After moving into an old house, a young girl discovers various treasures?a green glass marble, some beads under a porch step?that cause her to think of the people who once lived there. As her parents repaint and repair, other clues are uncovered. Then one day, a former occupant of the house visits. The girl questions the elderly woman about the past and is satisfied with the information she discovers, but the narrative provides no details. Although the text is well crafted, readers will find it difficult to develop any emotional attachment to the story. Baker's watercolors outshine the narrative. As the girl imagines scenes from the house's past, details in the paintings bring that time period into focus: youngsters in old-fashioned clothing eating fresh-baked gingerbread cookies, men in top hats, horse-drawn carriages. Set against softly blended backgrounds, the narrator is brought to the foreground as a serene, thoughtful child. This book may appeal to readers who have comparable experiences but it may not attract a much wider audience.?Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

In Vizurraga's debut, an old Victorian house gives up its secrets slowly, and glimpses from the past are signposts amidst the tangle of renovation and remodeling in the rooms and yard where a young girl imagines former inhabitants. Wallpaper layers, the color of roses, and a name scratched low on the kitchen door are clues to the life of a child who once jumped rope, played marbles, and kept a garden within the same walls, the same yard as the narrator. But adult sentiments fill her dreamy reminiscences; her ramblings turn to questions she asks of a white-haired woman who appears ``standing on that loose front porch step, looking up at our old house,'' a woman who lived there, once upon a time. Baker wets her watercolor palette with the new green of spring in the grass surrounding the house and the soft stenciling on the walls. Porch swings and kittens provide the sleepy background for each sentimental moment. It's a quiet reverie--perhaps too quiet for most children--and it's certainly pretty to look at. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0805039112
• ISBN 13: 9780805039115
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Baker Leslie