Book Review! The House In The Mail

The House in the Mail
By Rosemary & Tom Wells
ISBN: 0-670-03545-9
Illustrated by Dan Anderson
32 Pages
$16.99 US dollars
Age level = 4-8 years

I bought this book for my daughter. She was fascinated from the beginning. She couldn’t quite believe a house could be ordered in the mail. The living conditions and what was thought of as“modern” amazed her. It’s a well loved book in our house.

This wonderful book is written in the form of a diary with drawing and cutouts by Emily Cartwright., age 12, Emily lives with her parents, younger brother and grandparents in a two bedroom house in Enfield, Kentucky.

However, as Emily and her younger brother, Homer, grew, the house became a bit too small.

That’s when Emily declared she was moving to live with her aunt in Chicago. Her parents dropped a bombshell on them at that point. “Emily,” said Ma, “you’re right. We do live tight as bees in a hive. But we are about to build a new house of our very own, with a room for each of you and one for the new baby.” Emily and Homer found out they would be getting a new house

and a new brother or sister. Their pa laid a catalog on the table called Modern Homes. It had pictures of houses. Pa told them every house in the book came in a put-together kit and theywould put it together with a barrel of nails. Now, they just had to agree on a house.

The houses all had names like Jefferson, Beckford, or Carlisle. Finally a house called the Lincoln was selected. It had something everyone wanted, a porch for ma, big kitchen for pa, a window onto the roof for Homer and for Emily, her own bedroom.

Pa sent a check for $2,500 dollars to Sears,Roebuck & Company which was the price of the Lincoln. Ma said it was their whole life savings.

There are copies of pictures from Modern Home along with some blueprints to view. The
illustrations in this book are all on a background of parchment yellow. (think old newspaper) One of my favorites shows a modern kitchen, for the 1920’s. It looks like a child’s play kitchen. A modern washing machine which is a huge round tank with a foot pump to drain the water out which proclaims “fastest in the world!”

Each page is set up like a journal filled with photos, drawings, dried flowers, sequins, buttons, or cut-outs. One could just look at the illustrations and understand exactly what the story is about.

On November 5, 1927, not long after moving into the new house, Joseph Cartwright was born. Emily is proud that her brother is going to grow up in the modern house. He will never know how it was in the old days.

What about the rest of the story? What other secrets do Emily and Homer reveal? You will have to read this book and find out.


Website = Rosemary Wells http://www.rosemarywells.com/

Rosemary Well's Biography
Rosemary Wells (1943-) Biography - Personal, Career, Honors Awards, Writings, Adaptations, Sidelights

Communication! Resignation! Read of The Day!

The value of Communication!

Communication is a wonderful thing, especially these days with all the thingies we have to communicate with. However, things can go awry if one doesn’t properly utilize these wonderful thingies. E-mails for example, when you get one and it’s asking a question or giving you some great info, I do believe most people would answer back. There’s a few dark banana’s who for some reason, don’t. Why? Do they ignore you on purpose? Do they not read all the e-mail? Or just flake out and think you can mind read? I’d love to know? (Excuse my excessive use of things and thingies!) :O)


Resigned!

For those of you who would like to know I have resigned my post as ARA of Scotland due to unforeseen circumstances. While I loved what I was doing and hope SCBWI Scotland goes on to bigger and better things I cannot be a part of it. Boo! I am still a member of SCBWI and will continue to be so. Whoop!

Read of the day!

I LIKE THIS POEM edited Kaye Webb
This is a collection of poetry for children chosen by children. It was first published in 1979. I bought my copy in 2005. It is still available on Amazon.co.uk for 4.49.

The first chapter starts with poems chosen by 6&7 year olds and continues up though age 15. After each poem is a small blurb from the child telling why this poem was chosen; some of them are quite profound and some are great for a giggle. I love to see how the types of poetry changes as the children get older.

One of my favorite poems is in this book, Silver by Walter De La Mare, (page 144) in the 13 year olds section. As well as On the Ning Nang Nong by Spike Milligan, (page 10) Tartary by Walter De La Mare, (page ) Upon the Snail by John Bunyan, (page 23) I’ve Had this Shirt by Michael Rosen, (page 99) The Lady of Shalott (part 1) by Alfred Lord Tennyson, (page 155) The Paint Box by E.V. Rieu, (page 158) Chamber Music by James Joyce, (page 164) and The Listeners by Walter De La Mare. (page176)

You may notice I love Walter De La Mare and am thrilled this book has so many of his poems. My Bookworms favorite is the Upon the Snail. She memorized this soon after I bought this book in 2005. We have read this book so much the pages are getting quite worn but we still find something new every time we open this book.

Smiles, Charlotte