Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
A House in the Sky
Illustrator: Robbin Gourley
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Charlesbridge, 2018 ISBN: 978-1580897808
Human homes come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and many people invest a lot of time and effort into making their homes attractive, comfortable, cozy, and an extension of themselves. Animals also build homes for themselves so that they have a place to go where they are safe, where they can sleep, and where they can raise their babies.
In this book readers will see that animals create homes is a wide variety of habitats, and some of these homes are quite remarkable. For example, oven birds build houses of mud and plant fibers in trees. The mud mixture hardens to provide the birds with a safe place to raise their chicks.
Termites construct huge mounds out of earth that provide a home for a termite queen and her subjects, which can number in the millions. Beavers also build a complex structure that takes a lot of work to build, and it also impacts the environment that they live in.
Other animals have simpler domestic arrangements. Box turtles carry their home with them wherever they go, as do hermit crabs and sea snails. Some animals go so far as to make their chosen environment their home. The common swift for example lives, sleeps, and eats in the air and they never “touch down.”
Children who are interested in animals are sure to enjoy this beautifully illustrated picture book. On the pages they will meet a wide variety of animals that they will enjoy looking at and learning about.
