Ages 4 to 8, Grades P to 3
From award-winning husband-and-wife team Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek, Little Houses is an unforgettable masterpiece about nature, family, wonder, and the ocean. The lyrical, informative text and stunning paintings make this a spectacular seasonal picture book as well as a great choice for family sharing and story times all year round.
When a young girl visits her grandparents at the beach, she stays in a little house and walks along the shore gathering seashells—which were once little houses of their own. As she wanders the beach, she wonders about the creatures who used to live in each shell, about the hidden treasures of the sea, and about what it would be like to know the answers to everything.Kevin Henkes’s text features striking imagery, depth of emotion, and a lovely multigenerational relationship. He deftly captures the feeling of wonder and imagination that is fostered by a trip to the shore. And pairing Henkes’s text with Laura Dronzek’s lush, saturated paintings makes this book a true treasure for parents and children and a must-have in the classroom.
About the Author
Kevin Henkes is the author and illustrator of more than fifty critically acclaimed and award-winning picture books, beginning readers, and novels. He is the winner of the American Library Association’s 2020 Children’s Literature Legacy Award; he received the Caldecott Medal for Kitten’s First Full Moon in 2005; and Waiting won a Caldecott Honor and Geisel Honor in 2016. Kevin Henkes is also the creator of a number of picture books featuring his mouse characters, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Lilly’s Big Day and Wemberly Worried, the Caldecott Honor Book Owen, and the beloved Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. His most recent mouse character, Penny, was introduced in Penny and Her Song; her story continued in Penny and Her Doll, Penny and Her Marble (a Geisel Honor Book), and Penny and Her Sled. Bruce Handy, in a New York Times Book Review piece about A Good Day, wrote, “It should be said: Kevin Henkes is a genius.” Kevin Henkes received two Newbery Honors for novels—one for The Year of Billy Miller and the other for Olive’s Ocean. Also among his fiction for older readers are the novels Junonia, Bird Lake Moon, The Birthday Room, Sun & Spoon, and Sweeping Up the Heart. Kevin Henkes has been published by Greenwillow Books since the release of his first book, All Alone, in 1981. Most recently, he is the author of Summer Song, Sun Flower Lion, Billy Miller Makes a Wish, and A House.He lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin. You can visit him online at www.kevinhenkes.com. Laura Dronzek is a painter whose work has been exhibited nationally. Her picture books include the acclaimed When Spring Comes, by Kevin Henkes; In the Middle of Fall, by Kevin Henkes; Winter Is Here, by Kevin Henkes; Summer Song, by Kevin Henkes; Birds, by Kevin Henkes; Oh!, by Kevin Henkes; White Is for Blueberry, by George Shannon; Tippy-Toe Chick, Go!, by George Shannon; Moonlight, by Helen V. Griffith; and It Is Night, by Phyllis Rowand. She lives with her family in Madison, Wisconsin.
