Our House on the Hill

In lively, action-filled scenes, the author of Jack at Sea and Dear Daddy wordlessly portrays the seasonal changes that take place in a landscape of hills, pastures, ponds, trees and a large house, center stage for the natural cycle from January to December. The family that lives there is depicted in various activities indoors and out: sledding in January, flying kites in April, having a campfire in July and making snowballs in December. The artist views the house from a fixed perspective throughout the 12 months, which emphasizes nature's transitions through time while one placehomereliably remains unchanged. His acclaimed skill as a watercolorist is fully employed; dusky pink skies and cumulus clouds drift over the countryside, and the changes in light from the unseen rotations of the sun contribute in a subtle but cleverly effective way to the sense of time's passage. Ages 3-8. (February)