We Were Tired Of Living In A House by Liesel Moak Skorpen
This is one of my favorite picture books from when I was little. I read it over and over. I'm tempted to buy a copy so I can have the pleasure of owning it.
The Plot: Three siblings are tired of living in a house, so they pack their bags and find a new home. A tree is fine... until they tumble out. Then they move onto a raft... until something happens and they move on to a new residence. They bring a memento from each home with them. At the end, they decide a house is best and go back home.
The Good: I think this is my earliest "survivor" book. Yes, one can argue for the language, or the pattern storytelling; the fantasy element as the children pretend to set up housekeeping until, at the end of a day of make believe, they return home. For me, it was examining the details of illustrations and truly believing that this intrepid group was living in a tree. And a raft. And a cave. The illustrator for the edition I loved was Doris Burn, so I'll need to hunt used book sales to get my own copy.
(Edited to remove broken link.)
2 comments:
Ohmygosh ... The Doris Burn illustrations made this book my absolute favorite. Looked on alibris.com for old copies (found a few for $40-$80), but then my Mom found my own original copy, cleaned it up, and gave it back to me -- seriously one of the best gifts ever. Still love it and hope my daughter will, too ... although she doesn't like that I won't let her actually touch it -- sticky six-yr-old fingers on my precious 'House'? Nuh-uh.
I love this book, too, but only know the reissue with different art.
I'm definitely going to hunt this down and check out Doe Burns's other books, especially Andrew Henry's Meadow and The Summerfolk, which both sound great.
Nice to discover your blog. I have only watched Buffy a few times, but am fully on board with chairs, fireplaces, tea cosies.
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