The+Little+House




 * Book Review by: Marisa Donenfeld **

Title: //The Little House// Reading Level: Grades 2 and up Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Publication Date: 1942 Media Type: Hardcover, 40 pages Language: English Author/Illustrator: Virginia Lee Burton ISBN: 0-395-18156-9
 * Bibliographic Data **

Virginia Lee Burton was born in Newton Centre, Massachusetts in 1909. Burton won a state scholarship to the [|California School of Fine Arts], in [|San Francisco]. In fall 1930, Burton enrolled in a Saturday morning drawing class taught by sculptor and artist George Demetrios at the Boston Museum School, and by spring the two were married. They have two sons together. She wrote and published her first book, //Choo Choo// in 1935. In 1941, Burton founded the [|Cape Ann, Massachusetts], textile collective [|Folly Cove Designers] , whose works were included in arts and crafts exhibitions of the 1940s and 1950s, and are in the collections of Boston's [|Museum of Fine Arts] , the [|Peabody Essex Museum] in Salem, Massachusetts, and New York City's [|Metropolitan Museum of Art]. She died in 1968 of lung cancer. The Little House is a story about a house built at the top of a small hill in the country. The man who built the house says that she "may never be sold for gold or silver" but is built sturdy enough to one day see his great-great-grandchildren's great-great-grandchildren living in her. The house watches the seasons pass, and wonders about the lights of the city, which grow closer. Soon, a road is built in front of the house, which is followed, by roadside stands, gas stations, and more houses. Next, apartments, streetcars, a railroad, and a subway surround the house. Finally, two skyscrapers are built one on each side of the house. Now the little house is in the city and is sad because she misses being on the small hill in the countryside and her exterior looks shabby due to no one living in her and the city's environment. One day the great-great-granddaughter of the builder sees the house and remembers stories that her grandmother told about living in just such a house, but that was far out in the country. When she discovers that it is the same house, she arranges to have her moved out of the city, to a hill in the country where she can once again watch the seasons pass and live happily ever after.
 * Author Biography **
 * Summary **

// The Little House // is a great way for children to learn the difference between urban and rural areas. Children can compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the country and cities. This book also shows children how times change and how progression is made. For example, it shows that horse and buggies were used for transportation in the past and today we have cars.
 * Review **

The theme of //The Little House// is progress. The beginning shows a little house on the countryside which progresses through time into a house in the city with paved roads and skyscrapers. The plot develops from country to city throughout decades of time. The illustrator uses illustrations to show the differences from past to present. For example, at the beginning of the book there were pictures of barns, horses, apple trees, and dirt roads. After time went on, there were pictures of the subway, cars, and large buildings at the end of the story.
 * Analysis of Literary Elements **

[] http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/little-house-virginia-lee-burton/1100154325
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