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PICTURE BOOKS
Ueno, Yoshi

The Big House and the Little House

48 pp. | Levine Querido | March, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-64614-049-7 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-64614-050-3 $17.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Emiko Fujishiima. Big Bear and Little Mouse live on the same road but have never met, because every day Bear goes one way to the woods (where he works as a forester) and Mouse goes the other way to town (where she works as a baker). Each is lonely. One happy day they each happen to walk in the opposite direction and meet; after a shy and tentative greeting, they share a pot of tea. Their friendship is further cemented by crisis. A storm threatens Mouse's house, located dangerously near the river, and Bear comes to the rescue, moving Mouse and her house to a safer location--right next door to him. The story and the telling are spare and plain with a hint of nostalgia. "They talked about all they thought and felt. About the town and the forest. About how things used to be, and the good and bad of how things are now." The deeply textured illustrations, in pen and ink, watercolor, and colored pencil, carry the emotional weight, ringing the changes on shades of blue and yellow and reminiscent, in the portrayal of trees, clouds, and waves, of the serenity and drama of Japanese woodblock prints.
Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

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