MR. THATCHER'S HOUSE

A rabbit’s house is a work in progress in author/illustrator Wauson’s picture book.

Long-eared, cottontailed Mr. Thatcher is determined to build the perfect home, but he can’t get it quite right: “no matter how smoothly he sanded his stair treads, or how precisely he planed his porch planks, it never felt perfect….and, quite by accident, the house grew…and grew.” One day, his neighbor, a witch who lives in a structurally unsound gingerbread house, asks him for a place to stay—and soon, she and her cat move in with him. Then come three little pigs, who also insist on living there. Next are a family of bears, distraught after a break-in, and a woman whose kids have destroyed her shoe-house. Overwhelmed, Mr. Thatcher retreats outside, until he notices “music and laughter and the comforting crackle of logs in the fireplace…his house felt like a home.” Wauson’s enchanting full-page illustrationscombine whimsical watercolor backdrops with intricate details of the house in various stages of construction, depicted in muted tones and stunning shadings. The prose has a classic fairytale cadence, with a balance of action and sensory description. Mr. Thatcher charms with his busy meticulousness, even before the delightful arrival of the many well-loved fairytale characters who fill his house and heart.

A well-constructed picture book with a fine message.