OUR OLD HOUSE

by Susan Vizurraga ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1997

In Vizurraga's debut, an old Victorian house gives up its secrets slowly, and glimpses from the past are signposts amidst the tangle of renovation and remodeling in the rooms and yard where a young girl imagines former inhabitants. Wallpaper layers, the color of roses, and a name scratched low on the kitchen door are clues to the life of a child who once jumped rope, played marbles, and kept a garden within the same walls, the same yard as the narrator. But adult sentiments fill her dreamy reminiscences; her ramblings turn to questions she asks of a white-haired woman who appears ""standing on that loose front porch step, looking up at our old house,"" a woman who lived there, once upon a time. Baker wets her watercolor palette with the new green of spring in the grass surrounding the house and the soft stenciling on the walls. Porch swings and kittens provide the sleepy background for each sentimental moment. It's a quiet reverie--perhaps too quiet for most children--and it's certainly pretty to look at.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1997

Categories: CHILDREN'S