This is an intriguing book with the most amazing illustrations. Near my home there is an abandoned house. I keep expecting to see someone either renovating it or knocking it down but it just seems to slump further each week into the tall grasses which grow around the perimeter. This house is in a prime location near a beautiful quiet lake. I am sure the land alone would be worth a huge amount of money. It is all just a mystery.
In A house that once was two children find an abandoned house. As they wander through they try to imagine why the people left; who the perhaps lived there; and what they might be doing now.
The text is a series of poems:
"Tiptoe creep
up the path
up the path that is hiding.
A path that once welcomed.
A path that is winding.
A path that's now covered in weeds."
"Or maybe it loves to just sit and remember stories of someone who we'll never know.
And maybe it likes it out there in the forest with the trees coming in where the roof used to go."
I highly recommend you read this review in the School Library Journal by Elizabeth Bird.
Turn off the sound on your computer and just look at this video and enjoy the exquisite illustrations in this book. There is a wonderful visual literacy lesson waiting to be developed around the three cover designs I have included above. The end papers in this book are also luminous. Half way through this book the illustration style completely changes. This reminded me of the way John Burningham shows the dreams of Shirley in his classic books - Come away from the Water, Shirley and Time to get out of the Bath, Shirley. If you read A house that once was with a group of children (I suggest Grade 3 or 4) it would also be the perfect time to introduce these two books as comparison texts:
Take a look at my recent post about If you want to see a Whale also by Julie Fogliano.
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