Jonathan Bean's (At Night) enchanting picture book is not just about building a house, it's about embracing a lifestyle.
Based on actual events from the author-artist's childhood (according to an endnote), this feast for the eyes chronicles the nearly step-by-step process of erecting a timber-frame house on pristine land. The opening endpapers depict a vista of rolling hills, one visible farmhouse and a pasture with a horse. A fence and sheepfold mark the only other evidence of a human presence. On the title page, a family packs up their belongings from a city rowhouse and loads them into a blue pick-up truck called Willys. The narrator helps her mother carry the plans for the house, and her younger brother helps her father tote the tools. Together they make up "a strong crew of four."
Bean punctuates the narrative with mantras to live by: "The right tools for the right job" and "a good plan for a good house." Everyone helps. Mom marks the lumber that Dad will saw, and after Dad saws the boards, Mom hammers and nails them "into a form that will hold concrete and rock" and shape the foundation for the house. Humorous touches, such as the younger brother "help[ing] Dad inspect the lumber," when he's really taking a pony ride on a plank and frightening the cat with a spray from the water hose, lighten up the hard work, as does the full-spread image of a frame-raising party. As the family breathes life into this new home, wordless subplots show other signs of new life: the cat gives birth to kittens, and through the pages, Mom's tummy grows, and a new baby arrives. On the closing endpapers, even the horse in the nearby pasture has a colt, and we see the newly built house with Willys parked outside, as Dad tills a garden and the kids climb into a treehouse.
Bean's inspiring true tale illustrates that realizing our dreams requires only a vision and hard work. --Jennifer M. Brown
Shelf Talker: This enchanting picture book could serve as a step-by-step guide to building a house--and embracing a lifestyle.