Quand on grandit dans une toute petite maison, même si elle est confortable et rassurante, il arrive un moment où on devient trop grand. Alors, il faut sortir pour visiter le monde et pour en trouver une nouvelle... à notre taille !

Cute, and mildly funny, comic book story for beginning readers. ( )

English picture-book author/artist Alexis Deacon, the creator of that charming little alien in Beegu, joins forces with Viviane Schwarz - expat German illustrator and author, now living in London, who is best known as the woman behind There Are Cats in This Book - in this delightful tale of a group of little creatures (mice? hamsters?) who must seek a new den, when their old one becomes too small for them. Soon "clothed" in an assortment of odds and ends to be found in the junkyard they call home (their initial den was a hole in an abandoned mattress), the siblings make their way through and around a variety of obstacles, relying on the only one of them who can see, for guidance. But when he is snatched up by the junkyard's guard dog, the tiny procession kicks into high gear to rescue him, ending up discovering something incredible - the wide world beyond the junkyard fence - in the process...

Reading through A Place to Call Home on my train-ride this morning, I was convinced that this was going to be a three-star book for me. I enjoyed Deacon's story, and appreciated the humor - both textual and visual - to be found in the bumbling little companions' quirky quest, but wasn't terribly involved, all the same. The artwork was very cute, but then, I'd expect no less from Schwarz, after enjoying her There Are Cats in This Book. Then I got to the final two-page spread, and suddenly the book was a four-star one! I liked the visual "surprise" at the end, mostly because it was a surprise, and because it very cleverly jolts the reader out of "make-believe land," and into the "real" world. Very well done, indeed! ( )

Lots of fun! ( )

There are many children’s books that are often given as gifts on these occasions – many are the children who have received copies of Dr. Suess’, Oh, the Places You’ll Go (1990 Random House), upon graduating high school. Perhaps Neil Gaiman’s, Instructions, (2010 Harper Collins), is on your list of timely and apropos graduation gift books as well, or Peter H. Reynolds’, The North Star (2009 Candlewick).

Here’s a new one, however, that may have escaped your notice -

A Place to Call Home

While it is not a story of individual possibility or achievement (it features seven hamster siblings), it is a humorous and touching story of exploration which begins like this,

"What is this?

It is a small, dark hole.
It is also a home. A nice, warm, safe home. The trouble is, if you grow up in a small, dark, hole, even if you start out tiny, there comes a time when you’ve grown too big, and then you to go …

out into the world."

(cue the humor)

From this point, the comical watercolor illustrations feature the hand-lettered, word bubble conversations of the hamsters. Armed with a paper towel tube, two plastic gloves, a faucet, an old boot and a lampshade, the hapless hamsters start out into the wild world - crossing the sea (the dog’s spilled water bowl), the desert (a ripped basement sandbag), and other perils, including the aforementioned dog. The illustrations are so funny, but it is the final double-spread photograph that pulls the book together and gives it a sense of poignancy.

This is a book that one might enjoy for its hilarious artwork or its message of cooperation and bravery; but for me and for my daughter, leaving her small hole and heading out on her own, it’s a perfect fable for a new journey into that great big world.

http://shelf-employed.blogspot.com/2011/08/thoughts-on-place-to-call-home.html ( )