Take Advantage Of The Full House And The Empty House Originated By LK James Produced In Digital Format

grass is always greener on the other side kind of book, A very strange book about friendship, and I loved it, The words are simple, the art is offkilter, the plot is unexpected, spare, and perfect, The colors in this book didn't appeal to me, The story is imaginative having two houses be friends and dance with each other, The one has lots of decor and furniture and the other has none of that, But the houses are friends, Kids may love this but I found it very imaginative and not one I would pick to read aloud, A moving read about two houses who appreciate the difference in one another and find the difference beautiful, The illustrations are captivating and speak as sincerely as the words, Printed in a gorgeous hardcover, As a reviewer of childrens books, I have a big problem that can impede my job right from the get go, Im an adult. Now, generally this isnt a bad thing, I know how to spell and type quickly, I can come up with lofty explanations about why a book featuring a llama or a farting toad is great literature, But like any adult, Im far removed from my own childhood, And because I got a good education and learned big words about why one book or another is “distinguished”, my natural instinct whenever I pick up a picture book is to thrust that knowledge onto allof their pages.
Books like The Full House and the Empty House, As it turns out, this book is a primo example of why I sometimes have to reread a book repeatedly so as to best smother those grownup voices in my head.
The first time I read this story, I tried to predict what it was going to do, The second time I read it, I tried to supplant its simple storytelling with highly verbal explanations about the deeper meaning and significance present in its art and text.
The third time I read it, I was confused because those first two reads didnt turn out very well for me, I hadnt accurately predicted what the book was going to do and I hadnt counted on its ending, The fourth time I read it, I just read it as a picture book for kids, A very good picture book for kids, A very good and very beautiful and very happy picture book for kids, Sometimes it takes a while to get your reaction to a book right, But when you do Its worth it,

There once were two houses that looked very much alike, Their differences lay deep inside, In one house there were bursting cupboards, full kitchens, and bathrooms filled with trinkets and goodies, In the other you might find a single sandwich on a plate or a restroom with just a toilet and sink, Little else. Yet in spite of these differences the two houses were good friends, and each appreciated the differences in the other, And so they would dance and, afterwards, look at the world sidebyside, “until it was time to go home, ”

So let me talk about what I thought was going to happen when I first read this book, I knew that its creator, LK James, was a debut picture book author/illustrator, Ive also read a lot of debut creators in my day and when they want to make a new story they often rely on the old standby lessons.
So when I discovered that one of the houses in this story was full and the other was empty I decided right then that the story was going to involve one of the following:

A: The full house was going to offer some of the stuff inside itself to the empty house.

B: The empty house was going to convince the full house to let go of its worldly possessions and just enjoy life,
C: The houses wouldnt get along and then, at the end, realize that they both had something to offer,

Perfectly fine storylines, Believable ones. And, to be frank, subpar/boring ones, Because if even a single solitary one of those storylines had occurred, this book would have fallen into the same pit as the hundreds of other picture books that are published and forgotten in a given year.
It would have become trite and predictable, Didactic and simplistic. I remember getting to the end of this book, completely flattened by the succinctness and clarity of the writing, So so they like one another and see the benefits of their differences Theres no overall conflict that separates them at any point Its just a story about friends who are different.
. . and thats that This is why I started

rereading it repeatedly, By all logic, a story with that little amount of plot shouldnt work, You shouldnt feel compelled to read it over and over, You should feel the book would benefit from some kind of problem, This book breaks all of those rules, It feels right because it is right, In one go, Ms. James has hit just the perfect tone, I was reminded of classic picture books from long ago, Titles like sitelinkThe Maggie B by Irene Haas where not a lot happens, but everything that does is just right, I dont like to wield the term “contemporary classic” about, but this book would deserve the appellation,

The writing succeeds, but it's the art that delivers the sucker punch, I suspect that if you handed this book, without explanation, to a childrens librarian or bookseller they would leap to the not entirely unexpected conclusion that the book was an import.
This is because we've grown used to seeing a certain type of beautiful book only on other shores, Yet James is American, no doubt, And the publication page of this book could not be more straightforward about how it was created, “The art work for this book was handdrawn in ink and edited digitally, ” Ifis remembered for nothing else, it is for me anyway the year that I was continually fooled by the sophistication of the digital sphere, Like the French import, sitelinkSweet Dreamers by Isabelle Simler, this book feels handmade from start to finish,

Full House/Empty House felt like a gathering linocuts when I read it, I think it had something to do with the limited color scheme, I know that James does do work with risograph twocolor prints, and this book is very much in that same vein, James also keeps the book firmly rooted in umber, russet, teal, and goldenrod, She then alternates the pages between two very different vibes, When you are outside the houses they appear almost cartoonish, with their long legs and high heels, Inside, however, the level of detail is astounding, Just look at the full houses bathroom, As the text says, it contains, “a big bathtub with gold clawed feet, a sink shaped like a seashell, a hairbrush and comb made of bone, and cakes of lilac soap.
” But none of that even mentions the ukuleles, cigar box banjos, and plants that line the windows, What about that little pair of catheeled slippers next to the tub Or the rather adorable family photos on the wall of different houses including one thats clearly of the empty house.
The longer I stare into the full house the more I want to live there, Dance parties would be a problem, sure, but even as she sets up the beauty of the houses interior, so too is there a beauty to its chaos.
James makes the rather gutsy move to include a silent twopage spread of all the kitchen implements, utensils, art, ingredients, place settings, etc, flying up up up into the air as the house dances around, And then there are the little details that you only notice later, I liked watching the two tulips that the empty house gives the full house, Theyre plucked in the very first twopage spread and theyre the last image you ever see in the book,

I mean, I fight against it but I want so badly to lay the relationship of the two houses in this book on top of some kind of real world relationship.
If one house is full and the other empty, is that a metaphor for age Is this an intergenerational relationship GAH! Sorry, sorry, Honestly, the real beauty of this title is that it does exactly what every picture book should strive to do, It gives you a simple situation and allows the reader to bring their own interpretation to its pages, Its not forcing its meaning on you, but is simply telling a tale without premeditation, And so I pick it up for a fourth and fifth read, I read it to my kids and we linger on some of the pages, I ask them what they think it means, We talk about it. And the book just lets me do that, A bit of art, a bit of text, this typifies picture books at their best, Bold and small and gutsy and quiet, A title you could easily miss, but why would you want to

For ages, I've decided this book is like a Rorschach test, What you make if of it probably reveals something about you and the way you make meaning from stories,

My fouryearold was nonplussed, She said something like, "Is that it" when it was over, She likes it when stories have good guys and bad guys or problems that need to be solved, This book has no conflict whatsoever and she didn't know how to react to that, I look forward to reading it again with her when she's a little older,

As for me, I thought it was about how each person brings their own strengths to a relationship and it can be really nice if those strengths complement each other.
Sort of an "opposites attract" kind of thing, It also makes me think of my favorite song from Daniel Tiger I mean, at least top five that goes, "In some ways we are different, but in so many ways, we are the same.
" This book is a little on the overly strange side, but my fouryearold and I enjoyed ituntil the last page, which made no sense to me, This is a cute children's book, It's about two different houses, One is a full house that is full of house items, and the other house is an empty house, Each house is unique in their own way and still find that friendship is easy, My son thought the pictures of the houses were funny, especially when they danced together, If you are looking for a cute children's book this is one to pick up, "And because the empty house was empty, the full house could swing the empty house into the air with ease, And when the empty house was high above the ground, the full house felt like it too was flying, In the evening when the two houses grew tired of dancing, they would rest on the hillside and look out at the world together until it was time to go home.
"

This brief, succinct book celebrates the friendship between houses with similar exteriors and very different interiors, I thought it would explore how emotions function differently in the two houses, but it didn't, Instead, James just celebrates this rich friendship between distinct homes, Hard to describe this one, I may need to read it a few more times, I will say that I just love it, Charming and unique with crazy beautiful illustrations, I can't say it was a favorite, But I think it might when at ALA's Youth Media Awards, Not sure why I feel that way but we will see, .

It is a book that reminds us that our differences really do make us compatible, that we all bring something unique to the table, This interesting picture book celebrates diversity as a strength in friendships, In this story, there's an empty house and a house in which all of the rooms are full of things, And these two houses are best friends that dance and frolic together, The two houses appreciate their differences and use them to enhance their experiences together, Young readers might need help wrapping their minds around the choice of houses to illustrate this message about the power of diversity in building relationship, but the illustrations, handdrawn in ink and edited digitally, support the story well and will help with comprehension.
Simple book lots of space for pausing to think/reflect and notice, I thought ofother places I thought this story was going, but the author had another idea, Sweet and simple, but I feel like it is more for the grownups than the kids, This book definitely inspires thinking about its meaning,

There are two houses one is full of lots of things, and the other is basically empty, The two houses are friends, and celebrate their differences, This is good that they celebrate their differences,

However, I struggle with the idea that the house that is empty is okay being light as air, Families that truly have nothing but the bare necessities to survive might feel differently about this story, I would not recommend this book as a simple readaloud that celebrates diversity, but it would make a good story to start a discussion about the different strengths that people from different economic conditions have.
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