Author/Illustrator: Virginia Lee Burton
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston
Publication Date: 1942 renewed 1969
Awards: The Caldecott Medal 1943
Genre: Classic Fiction
Audience: Gr. K-3
Overview: A classic tale of a house who watches her surroundings change and take her from being “a Little House way out in the country” to a “shabby Little House” in the middle of a big city. There are several editions of this book available, as it was first published in 1942. Although the amount of color illustrations in the editions may vary, they none-the-less add value to this timeless tale.
Activity: A wonderful introduction to suburban, urban, and rural through the personification of a house. Have a class discussion of these settings; how they differ, are the same, and where the students would prefer to live, before doing the following activity as a class, in small groups, or with a partner. Have students create a chart with headings “urban”, “suburban”, and “rural.” They can use words or search through magazines to find pictures of houses in urban, suburban, and rural locations to fill in the chart and learn about the differences of these settings.
Reviewer’s Name: Laura Messerly
