Home by Carson Ellis

Reviewed by Lori
Home
Title: Home

Author: Carson Ellis

Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 95935

Description: A whimsical tribute to the myriad possibilities of home depicts homes in different real-world environments as well as fantastical settings.






Curriculum Links: 

  • Art: Design
  • Reading: Connecting
  • Science: Materials
  • Science: Structures
  • Social Studies: Local and Global Communities


Notes: 

Design: The cover is very engaging with a variety of Homes on the cover, that are both real and imagined, human and animal, natural and man-made.  The end pages are bright red and that is the main colour that draws attention within the pages - a red curtain, or red flag, a roof or chimney.  The text looks like pen quill and ink writing but is large and easily legible.

Content and Illustrations: This book is full of simple text that describes various types of homes, from apartments to bee hives, buses and ships, make believe homes and real homes, and the people who live in them.  I liked a lot of the contrast between the pictures ie. the home of a Slovakian duchess vs the home of a Kenyan blacksmith, a home on the moon or the home of a racoon etc.  The illustrations look like they are water coloured in muted colours of browns, greys, and blues, with the aforementioned red being the standout.  The author includes their home and finishes the book with questions to the reader - where is your home? Where are you?  Making an excellent connection between reading and reader.

Recommended Audience: Kindergarten to Grade 3

  • Excellent title to link to the Social Studies Curriculum (Homes, Local and Global Communities)
  • Great title to link to Science: Everyday Structures
  • Good title to make connections between literature and reader

Inquiries and Activities: 
  • Describe or make a picture of your home.  What kind of home do you live in?  Is it a house, a townhome, an apartment, a camper, or something else?  How many rooms does it have?  What do you like best about your home?
  • If you could design your own home what would it look like?
  • What do you notice about the homes, animal homes and make believe homes?  (How are they the same and how are they different - look at what makes up the structure)
  • Answer some of the authors questions?  Who lives in the little house on the hill?  Make up a story about who lives there.
  • If you could live on the Moon like a moonian or underwater like an Atlantian what would you need to survive?
  • What do you notice about some of the pictures on opposite pages (ie. French people/Atlantians and Slovakians/Kenyans)
  • On the page "An Artist Lives Here" what do you see in the room?  How do you think these objects inspired the illustrations in the book?  
  • Find some different objects to put up around your room.  Have your students create illustrations that match one or more of the objects. Create a book out of the illustrations.  Is there a theme to their work?  Write one line of text for each picture.
  • What are some different ways that we use to describe where we live.  (Ie. Address, Type of Home, Town, Community, Province, Country, Solar System)

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