Then, the rescue! The house is relocated. The Little House, surrounded (you can just see it peering fearfully out from under the overhead train) The city moves to the country, and it sprawls and builds and drives all around the Little House and its apple tree until the tiny cottage is completely overshadowed by skyscrapers and all kinds of vehicles. You can see a picture of the original Little House on the book cover. Upshot: cute little country farmhouse is gradually swallowed up by 'progress', which is still happening. I know we were given a copy when our kids were little, so I’ve used that as a date, but who cares? I just saw a review of this and HAD to add it to my list. The pink house winks from the cover.Īn all-time favourite children’s picture book that’s as old as I am (old) and as pertinent today as ever. Later, when Huck is napping, Rilla pounces on me, brandishing the book.
They'd have taken unicorns and dragons in stride, but a house riding along the road to a new hill in the countryside: clearly this is a wonder of the world. A house on the back of a truck! Both children are astounded at this marvel. It's magical, you know, when the movers come to carry it away. Trolley line, elevated train, subway, skyscrapers, you can hardly see the poor house. We have to read quickly now she needs to know. But the city is encroaching, surrounding, swallowing the little pink house, and Rilla has picked up the urgency. Steam shovel, big rocks, little rocks, tar, steamroller. The road comes rolling out from the distant city that's Huck's page to study. We must pause while Rilla touches each crescent and disk, naming the days. And then the next spread, the calendar of moons. The sun arcs across the page and this must be pored over, wait, Mommy, don't turn the page yet. The house is built, the countryside blooms, the seasons change. I love quiet books like The Little House, the kind that tiptoe their way into a child's heart. Huck climbs half on top of me and begins to count the trees around the little pink house. She has a laugh her sisters call the Evil Chipmunk. "Hot pink," she murmurs approvingly, studying the cover. She'll give almost anything a chance, if there's pink involved.
"It's about a big city growing up around this little pink house."
Rilla isn't sure she likes the look of Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House.
0 kommentar(er)
