A House Inside Out

by Penelope Lively

Relates the adventures of a variety of creatures--mice, spiders, pill bugs--that live, seen and unseen, in the nooks and crannies of an ordinary house.

The house in this work is home to Nat, a wood-louse; his friend the spider; and a family of mice—Sam, Sarah and their children. Then there's Willie, the family dog, 'greedy, lazy and always getting underfoot'.

Genres: Childrens, Short Stories

127 pages, Hardcover

Published January 21, 1988

About the author

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger.

Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.

She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.

Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.

Reviews

[Brenda Anweiler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful! If you like animal shenanigans you will love it!

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst I'm in the mood for re-reading childhood favourites, I chanced across this. Penelope Lively is an author I've read a fair bit of recently, and at some point I will try some of her adult literature, because I'm really keen on her junior titles.

This is a collection of short stories, loosely connected around the animals (Willie the pet terrier and other less welcome house guests) living in the household of the Dixon family. Possibly my favourite is the story of the woodlouse who befriends a spider and gets hoisted up to the top of the bath (where no woodlouse has ever gone before) on a strand of spider silk. I wonder if any other stories have been written with a woodlouse as a protagonist? I feel there should be!

These would be good to read out loud, and I think they'd make good bedtime stories - you could read one every night for a week. I liked the idea of exploring all the different stories of all the little creatures living in a house - known and unknown.

[Arliegh Kovacs · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories start with a rescue dog named Willie and what he thinks about his owner. Other chapters return to Willie. Some chapters are about other creatures in the Dixon household. A mouse named Sam (and his family). Sam has lots of daring adventures -- even though they often occur by accident and through no plan of his own. A pill bug named Nat who has adventures with a friendly spider. Nat never tells his escapades to his family because they-are-things-a-pill bug-would-never-be-able-t0-do. There is also a sly cat from another house who delights in getting Willie into trouble and a pigeon that is a friend of Sam. They were all amusing and, well, cute.
I recommend this book to the younger set and parents who read good-night stories to or with them.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book as a child! It tells the story of one house's animals - mice, a dog, spiders and wood lice, and all the adventures they get up to without the humans being aware. One mouse loves smokey bacon crisps, and one spider is so keen for a mate it is prepared to lose a few limbs in a fight!

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was all about a mouse and a dog that live together.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute.

[Sarah Dunsbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing and charming the adventures of a dog ,spider,woodlouse and family of mice who live with the Dixon family....

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Har alltid älskat den här boken, läst om den flera gånger, sedan jag köpte den 1992. Att få uppleva berättelserna från insekters perspektiv, lika väl som möss och hund, gör allt spännande och humoristiskt.