Home

by Alex T. Smith

Four best friends all live happily together in a house they call home, until each decides to go their separate ways, taking various parts of the house with them, and eventually they learn the difference between a house and a home.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Friendship, Adventure, Storytime

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2009

About the author

Alex T. Smith is the creator of the much-loved and bestselling Claude fiction series for early readers. He was the official World Book Day illustrator in 2014, and other recent accolades include the UKLA Picture Book Award for Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion and the Children’s Book of the World Illustration Award for illustrating Dodie Smith’s The Hundred and One Dalmatians. When not working, Alex enjoys doodling in his sketchbook, reading, people-watching, and eavesdropping. He lives under the watchful eye of his small canine companions, who are a constant source of inspiration to him.

Reviews

[Fjóla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Granted I may be the only person of this opinion, but I found this book idiotic. I had high expectations for it, as I liked the concept, and it looked very cute. But the story was just carried in such an inane manner. The pictures do have a lot of cuteness about them, and they are the saving grace of the book, I especially liked some of the spreads that were split between the four "friends". However, that wasn't enough for me, the rest I found uninspired and cheap. Even my 4 year old asked me, by the second page: "Really? These are their names: One, Two, Three and Four?!" And I agree with him so much, I mean, couldn't the author have put in a little effort to come up with better names? The next issue I had was with their differences, again I thought they could have centered about something infinitely more clever. Or what? Maybe this is supposed to be good enough for toddlers, but soon it doesn't make any sense. They discussed, then argued, then fought, ugh! They split the house up into walls, floor, windows and door, and even if I put aside the fact that this does not make any sense, it annoys me intensely that there is not any play on this in the rest of the plot, aside from the fact that One makes a raft out of the door. We see Two begin to pull the walls up a mountain, but on the next picture there are no walls to be seen. It doesn't get any better, so even if we can all agree with the naive message of the story, I parted with it quite dissatisfied. And, especially since the author decided to name his heros One, Two, Three ... I couldn't help but compare the book with One that we read yesterday, obviously a very unfavorable comparison ...

[Thaís Henriques Barros De Oliveira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Super cute but not very catchy

[Miss Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four friends live in a house together and that house is their home until there is a disagreement. They all decide to each go their own separate ways and they each take part of the house with them. However, they soon realize that they miss each other and their home. And a house is not a home with out each other.

[Casandria · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 different animal friends want to go live elsewhere. They split up and have adventures and realize there's no place like home.

[Emily Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really not sure why the author chose to name the main characters One, Two, Three, and Four...? It's also sort of a strange book, but it's strange in a way that I think children might enjoy.

[K.L. Bernard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four friends live in a house that is their home. Friend one thinks they should all become pirates and sail the seas. Friend two wants to go to the mountains and yodel. Friend three wants to live in an underground cave and collect creepy crawlies. Friend four wants to go to the big city and boogie woogie all night long. Of course none of them agree with any of the others ideas and they go their separate ways. When they all leave they take apart of the house with them.

Of course, they all discover that the adventures they had were lacking the fun they thought they would have. They soon discovered that the pieces of the house they took simply did not make a home. They missed each other and got back together, each apologized for leaving. Best friends again, they put their home back together again, this time with wheels. This way they could travel to all of the fun places together.

These four friends are really funny. This book teaches children the importance of family, friendship and having a home. The illustrations bring to life their very unfortunate adventures when they are separated from each other. Kids will love to read this story over and over again.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four friends share a cozy home, but they all long to go somewhere new. However, they can't agree on where to go, and their disagreement leads to their cozy home dismantling...literally. They each take a piece somewhere new and exciting. But the new locales aren't all they were cracked up to be.

A lesson on how to work out differences and what makes a home a home. It's also a little bit of a lesson on how exciting new places aren't as fun without someone to share the place with. Cutely illustrated, if it helps, I imagine this is what would happen if you took the Friends tv show and turned it into a children's cartoon that wants to teach lessons.

[Donna]

HOME is a book about friendship and compromise, written and illustrated in such an amusing way, it will entertain both children and adults.

I have to tell you: I have definitely become a fan of Alex T. Smith :) I've now read several books by him and have enjoyed them all. Through his humorous and unique writing style, which blends seamlessly with his quirky illustrations, he makes the "ridiculous" work in the most entertaining and surprisingly poignant ways.

[Melanie Hetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four friends, unimaginatively named One, Two, Three and Four, live in a house together. They are happy until someone suggests moving somewhere else. They all have their own ideas of what would be a fun move and no one agrees. So they all go their separate ways taking different pieces of the house with them. Soon, they all realize that home is where the heart, and the rest of the house, is.

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a good book for my boys (ages 4 & 8). It teaches that you can have a disagreement with someone but hopefully if you say you're sorry everything will work out in the end, and it might even be better than it was before!

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 friends want to venture out of their house, but none of the 4 want to do the same thing so they decide to split up. One, Two, Three, and Four discover that while they enjoy their adventures, the best place is home with their friends. Cute book about friendship.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four friends are dissatisfied with their life together. They dismantle their house and go off on different adventures. But they discover that they miss each other and their home. So they return and fix it up--better than it was before.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat concept, to illustrate the idea of what makes a house a home.

[Vandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 firends can't decide the best place to live. after splitting their own ways they realize happiness is in being together.

[Karen A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun fablish story for kids to discover the virtue of friendship by saying 'I'm Sorry'.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a simple theme-based story. Home is where the heart is summed it nicely.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friendship book for young kids that's not as sickly sweet as other ones!

[The Styling Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable picture book.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute. I really like this one.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

To Four Best Friends

One, Two, Three, Four,
Let's have a thumb war!
Five, Six, Seven, Eight,
It's home we appreciate.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is cute & very sweet. The kids enjoyed it but started drifting off towards the end. They enjoyed the illustrations. Best for a small group.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful picture book about the importance of friends and home.

[Geni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for kids not getting along with others.

[Terry]

This is a cozy-up-together book. My daughter and her grandmother shared this book and they were BOTH talking about it (excitedly, I might add) the next day. They loved the concept and the illustrations of the animal's experiences.

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