My House

by Lisa Desimini

Describes a house in different weather and light conditions.

This wonderful little book evokes the ways in which a house becomes a home. "A radical departure from traditional picture books" (The New York Times), My House "captures the variety of changes as well as the feeling of security a child feels about home"--Horn Book. Full color.

Genres: Picture Books

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

An American children's author and illustrator, Lisa Desimini was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1965, and educated at the School of Visual Arts, in New York City. Desimini has illustrated thirty-five books for children, nine of which she also authored. She is married to fellow artist Matt Mahurin, with whom she collaborated on My Beautiful Child. (sources: the author's website, and encyclopedia.com)

Reviews

[Beverly Kennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple text with some good vocab. The story describes how the author's house looks during every season, type of weather, time of day, etc. The illustrations are in the Ezra Jack Keats style, colorful, textural, and they help tell the story.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book works very well in a story time with a "house" or a "home" theme. You gotta' love the dedication page. There's a house for each of the author's friends. I always name the author and illustrator and sometimes the dedication page to convey the idea that books are BY people FOR people. Anyway, I played "I Spy with My Little Eye" with the children on this double-page spread.

I spy... a heart shaped house. Do you see it? etc.

This books provides lots of "Dialogic Reading" prompts. Ask whatever questions come to mind from your reading of the text or observation of the illustrations.
"is that when you wake up?" "how can you tell it's daybreak?" "what do you see walking up to the house?" etc. Here's a link telling WHY reading this way is helpful and HOW to do it: http://www.readingrockets.org/article... .

This book also provides prompts for actions (wind blows -- wave arms above head or blow on hands) etc.

Some pictures may bring a simple song to mind, such as "Leaves are falling all around -- on the rooftops, on the ground...". Here's a link to the words and tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63XaC... . We do actions with this, such as lifting arms above the head and wiggling fingers as you lower arms to lap, etc.

[Yasmin Gomez Geng]

The illustrations are an amazing showcase of what is possible when mixed media/collage styles are used. The text is simple but full of imagery as well as some metaphors.

The different seasons and weather are shown in vivid images. A reader could get lost in analyzing what each picture is made up of.

Grade: Kindergarten - 2nd Grade
Topic: Weather, Seasons, Home/Family

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

house/home, weather

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looks simplistic, but has amazing illustrations. A good way to teach about seasons.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm using this one for a baby storytime about houses.