Most creatures need shelter to survive. In her beautiful and inviting solo debut, Home, Carson Ellis (Wildwood series artist) illustrates the many different kinds of homes that humans and animals--past, present and even fictional--might inhabit.
A bird flies out of its nest on the title page and leads the reader on a worldwide tour of homes throughout time and place and even outer space, adding a fun "find the bird" element to the whimsical gouache and ink illustrations, awash in an exquisitely earthy color palette. "Home is a house in the country," and home is also an apartment, underground lair or shoe ("There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"). "French people live in French homes" and "Atlantians make their homes underwater." The book becomes a bit poetic in the middle: "Tall homes./ Short homes./ Sea homes./ Bee homes./ Hollow tree homes." Each painting is an untold story, waiting to be drawn out. "Where is your home? Where are you?" --Karin Snelson, children's editor, Shelf Awareness