The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

"Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country. She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built."

There is so much to think about in these first sentences. I love the way the author personifies the house and also uses capital letters for her name. 

When I started my "job" judging for the Children's Book Council of Australia for our National book awards (2021-23) I asked a wise friend to suggest some classic books that I should read or reread. She and I mostly talked about middle grade novels and of course she expected I would have already read most of the famous Australian picture books. I think I need to expand my request to include international classics and award winners such as this book - The Little House. 

I can't talk about the new book by Sophie Blackall (The Farmhouse) yet but many US reviewers compare this new book with the 1942 classic The Little House which I read for the first time yesterday. I had no idea that The Little House would utterly charm me.

My friend loaned me her copy (6th edition 1968) and inside I found a magazine article about Virginia Lee Burton (1909-1970) by Grace Hogarth worked for Houghton Mifflin and she was the editor of The Little House.

"She made me feel that it was my book too - that we were creating it together, step by step. This wasn't true of course. It was completely her own book, from start to finish, and I had only to stand by and cheer her on."

The Little House won the Caldecott Medal in 1943.

Virginia Burton has a sense of pattern that makes her pictures almost like a tapestry. Kirkus Star

The circular patterns that flow through the first thirteen pages, shaped to fit the page, suggest the harmonious values of country life. When change occurs, diagonal lines and drab greys and browns portend the coming industrialisation.” Burton’s choice of colours burst from the pages of her book as each season changes, and the presence of time is evident in every detail of her drawings. With the beauty of her illustrations and the weaving of her words, the reader connects emotionally with the little house as they watch the city limits move in, casting its darkness around the tiny structure. The story itself is so rich, and begins and ends in the happiest of places - on a little hill way out in the country. Drawn to Imagination

I found this article that lists seven reasons to read The Little House. Read more about the plot here on the blog 100 books every child should read. Disney made a movie of this book in 1952 but he only paid Virginia Lee Burton $1000.  Here are some of the illustrations beginning with the end papers:

I am drawn to television shows where people restore old houses and I am also drawn to books which feature old houses that find a new life with a new family such as these:

The Hidden House and also House Held up by trees

A House that Once was