if my children were younger we would have loved to sit and look at this and decide which one we liked best and who we thought would live in each one. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance.

We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from. And it doesn’t just cover the habitats of people: for example, one page shows the home of a raccoon, and one shows the home of a Norse god. The writing and the illustrations blew me away and the story kept my daughter entertained while we were reading! For instance, there is a young dark skinned girl sitting in an apartment building that is covered in graffiti, the illustration for "Some homes are wigwams" have Indigenous people with bows and arrows, followed by a palace and an underground lair in which Arab, possible Muslim, characters are smoking as they stack gold coins and there is a woman reclining on a pile of gold --as if she is a possession. She also cleverly shows you how the very same home can look quite different, as with her comparison of a “clean” home versus a “messy” home.While I love the look and color palette of the gouache and ink artwork, the story just didn't satisfy me. I found that while I appreciated the individual homes beings portrayed, somehow their juxtaposition just didn't work for me. Coming as it does before the "home" in a shoe - a clear fairy-tale reference - I myself read the Middle-Eastern scene as a reference to the story of Aladdin, and have to wonder if these critics are simply unaware of that story, and ignorant of the wider storytelling tradition of The Arabian Nights. When I was little, I was fascinated with the different types of houses people had all around the world. It was disappointing to see an apartment being depicted as in the city amongst pollution and graffiti, which read (to me) as less desirable than many of the other homes.

The picture book debut of Carson Ellis, acclaimed illustrator of the Wildwood series and Lemony Snicket’s The Composer is Dead, this is a gorgeous, imaginative celebration of the many possibilities of home. We liked the way some homes were real and some like the Moonian's house and the home of the Norse god were fantasy. That said, I wasn't quite as impressed with the narrative, which felt random to me, and not in an appealing way. The illustration style was wonderful, the only issue I have is that some of the scenes were not fully explained by the text, and might encourage children to believe broad, questionable stereotypes at an early age. Home” is recommended to introduce children to the concept of unique homes and would be exceptional in a situation where a family is intending to move.

I'll always have thing for the muted palate/folksy style of The Decemberists' art for that warm feeling the band gave in me in the early 2000s.

Carson lives on a farm in Oregon with Colin, their two sons, two cats, one llama, three goats, many chickens, and an unfathomable multitude of tree frogs. I enjoyed the cyclical ending (or beginning) of this book and how Ellis' journey through different homes, imaginary as well as wholly real all blossomed from the artist's studio (final picture). Home” is an oversized juvenile picture book with very little text targeting very young children mostly in the 4-6 age bracket.Overall, “Home” is a very simple and to-the-point book for the young ones (perhaps too simple); but has a positive message. The illustrations are mainly whimsical depictions of various types of homes, of both people and animals, around the world. She uses her colours sparingly, browns, greys, greens and reds to great effect as we follow a little bird - a migrator free to travel anywhere - around the world (both real and imaginary) to places we may never visit. Ellis begins “Home” by presenting a variety of homes and mentioning the types of creatures to inhabit them. We particularly liked the page that showed a Babouska's house as this was the name of our much loved guinea pig that I use as my goodreads picture.

The focus of “Home” is more on the illustrations than actual prose but the message is clear: people and animals live in diverse dwellings but one is not better than the next. Although “Home” is intended for small children; the author and illustrator Carson Ellis is known amongst adults as the wife of Colin Meloy, lead singer of the band, The Decemberists. Discussion: I could spend hours looking at the pictures in this book, ferreting out half-hidden delightful details. I also did not care for the way some individuals / homes were depicted, and to me seemed to stereotype. Uniquely, “Home” then takes turn showing the interior of homes versus the exterior and then switching it up yet again by presenting homes (even fantasy ones) which engage a child’s creativity by asking who lives in them.

Addendum: I see that Home has been criticized for some stereotyping, when it comes to who lives where - a young girl of color living in a graffiti-covered urban apartment building, for instance - as well as some poorly thought out juxtapositions. As a debut, I found Ellis' concept of what home means to different people a powerful and thought-provoking discussion. I appreciated Ellis' subtle but appealing color palette, and found that her use of stylized figures and objects helped to create a charmingly retro-vintage feeling. I liked the whimsical story about the many different homes that exist--both real and fantastical--but it was the art that took my breath away.