MY HOUSE IN THE SKY

In Bock’s picture book debut, a child whose parents have divorced imagines a house created from memories of happy times.

The blond, fair-skinned narrator’s daddy lives in a blue house. Mommy lives in a red house. But the narrator has a third house, and even though nobody has been there, “maybe you can come visit someday…if you want to.” This shy invitation is followed by the narrator’s descriptions of the amazing things at the house, including wild horses, the old van that the family used to take on road trips, a lost cat, and the family’s broken hot tub, which now works again. Young readers may not immediately grasp the conceit, but eventually, the meaning becomes clear: This is the house the narrator has built of memories—just the good ones. She gets “to decide what stays and what fades away.” Bock’s text obscures the theme a bit with the metaphor of the memory-built house, and despite the clarification that the house is in the sky, it all feels a little abstract for young lap readers. Botha’s painterly illustrations are a delight to the eye, and they help to illuminate the story, though young readers will again need time (and perhaps some guidance) to understand that the house in the sky is a repository for memories of happy times, not a locus of reconciliation in the narrator’s present.

A sensitive tale that will invite heartfelt conversations.