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Houses and Homes Topic

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Houses and Homes Topic Booklist

There’s no place like home! Houses and homes come in all shapes and sizes, from caravans and houseboats to apartments and cabins. Whether you are looking at cities, towns or villages, our selection of recommended children’s books about houses and homes will help primary school children to build the best foundations for understanding the topic.

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Books about different kinds of homes

Kate Baker
 & Rebecca Green
Non-fiction
Take a sneak peek inside homes from all around the world with this charming lift-the-flap book, written by Kate Baker and beautifully illustrated by Rebecca Green. From cosy wooden houses in snow-blanketed Greenland to traditional Maasai mud huts in East Africa, young children will discover different ways of living across the globe and get a unique glimpse into diverse cultures and communities.
Richard O'Neill
 & Cindy Kang
Picturebook
A Traveller girl with a passion for design and technology collects cans for her local recycling plant and uses the metal to renovate an elderly neighbour's caravan.When Janie’s neighbour Mrs Tolen goes into hospital with a broken hip, it looks as though she will have to move out of her old caravan and into a house. Janie is desperate to help, but all seems lost until her school visits a local recycling plant. All it takes from there is imagination, a supportive community, and lots and lots of hard work to transform Mrs Tolen’s old caravan into a safe and secure new home! The latest picture book by renowned Romani storyteller Richard O’Neill celebrates the traditional Traveller virtues of resilience, adaptability, loyalty and independence.
Carson Ellis
Picturebook
This is a beautifully illustrated picture book that depicts homes of different kinds, both real and imaginative. The book is wonderful for provoking thinking and discussion about what makes something a home and why people might live in different sorts of homes.
Jess Hitchman
 & Lili La Beleine
Picturebook

In Every House on Every Street takes us behind the doors and windows of one house in one street. It shows us the family, the community and the love that resides there. As we are shown around the house we learn that the rooms are not just rooms, they are places to play, care and feel together. And we learn that behind every door, there is a family with a story to tell.

Joseph Coelho
 & Richard Johnson
Picturebook

Our Tower tells the story of three children living in a tower block. Viewing their environment as “concrete and grey”, they decide to seek out the glimpse of green they can see high up from their window.

Finding the tree they have longed to see reveals a secret world of magic. Tumbling deep inside, they find “a world deeper than anything Our Tower has ever seen.” But the most significant discovery is the tree-grown man living within, who opens their eyes to the true magic. With his words, the children see that magic is everywhere, including in their tower. A tower full of love and community.

This is a beautiful story inspired by author Joseph Coelho’s own experience of growing up in a tower block. The new Children’s Laureate brilliantly illustrates the diversity and the incredible sense of community that living in a tower block provides, showing how they are more magical than the boring, hard and grey high-rise flats that dominate urban skylines. The tale brings a message about urbanisation, where there’s a perceived distinction between countryside and urban spaces, yet this reminds us that nature is all around us, wherever we live, and everyone should have access to it.

Every page is a feast for the eyes with stunning and sumptuous illustrations by Richard Johnson. The colours perfectly reflect the mood of the poetic narrative, changing from dull greys to magical purples to vibrant, magical technicolour.

As always, the talent of Joseph Coelho’s writing expertly combines writing in verse and poetry with inspiring rich vocabulary.


Books about houses from the past

Goldie Hawk
 & Sarah Gibb
Non-fiction Picturebook

This is a charming laser-cut book designed to explore houses and homes in different periods of British history. With a focus on wealthier homes, the chronological guide begins in the Late Middle Ages and travels through seven different eras, finishing at present day. Fold-out sections and intricate laser-cut flaps allow little hands to open up the houses, peek through windows and observe different family members engaging in their activities in and around the home. Broader topics such as clothes, food and architecture are considered and the way in which priorities and lifestyles change over time is gently drawn out across the different sections.

Jan Oke
 & Ian Nolan (photographer)
Picturebook
This unusual and original book is a photographic picture story that compares old and new houses. The story follows two Victorian toy soldiers that were hidden beneath the floorboards of a house in 1870. When the pair are discovered 140 years later they are surprised to see just how much the house has changed.
Jeannie Baker
Picturebook

Belonging is a wordless picture book created by Jeannie Baker in her distinctive collage style. The story is told through a series of suburban scenes viewed through a window and starts with the birth of a baby girl following her life up to the birth of her own child. Gradually we watch the re-greening of the landscape and the growth of community spirit as people come together to improve their surroundings. A book to be read on several levels but one that creates a hopeful feel, encouraging readers to think about how they can create a similar improvement in their own environment.

DK
 & Steve Noon
Non-fiction

This wow-factor history book takes the reader on a 12,000-year journey to find out the story of a single UK street, showing the street during a different historical period on each page. I’m incredibly nosy – I think most young readers are too – and so I love any non-fiction books that explore or peep behind closed doors. A Street Through Time does this in the best possible way and over thousands of years. You can see what people’s kitchens and bedrooms (and loos!) looked like from the Romans to the Victorians (Roman toilets I’d avoid….!). I also love how busy this book is so many brilliant details to explore again and again and how it shows the change in a single place over a long time period.

Books about building houses

Mick Manning
 & Brita Granström
Non-fiction Picturebook
An informative non-fiction text that covers the different types of houses and how they are built. The book also includes teacher notes and activities to support the new primary curriculum.
Polly Faber
 & Klas Fahlén
Non-fiction
Building a Home is a beautifully illustrated picture book guide to exactly how an old building can become a brand-new home.Now available in paperback, with action-packed artwork from Klas Fahlen and a gentle narrative text by Polly Faber, find out all about the people, machines, processes and tools involved in breathing new life into an old building. Packed with builders, cranes, diggers, cement mixers and a host of other exciting tools and machinery, follow a crumbling old factory on the edge of town as it goes from being an empty shell to something entirely new . . . a home.
Andrea Beaty
Chapter book

Iggy Peck is a young boy with a passion for building. No matter what materials he has to hand (from apples to nappies), he manages to use them to construct another new amazing creation. When Iggy’s new teacher bans building, Iggy will have to find a way to convince her that his architecture skills are very useful indeed. There is also an accompanying STEM activity book.

Joshua David Stein
Picturebook
A young brick goes on a journey to find her place in the world by visiting ten celebrated brick structures around the globe. Brick's observations begin at home and then extend globally as she travels to a diverse list of brick structures - Malbork Castle in Poland, Mahabodhi Buddhist Temple in India, Grosvenor Estate apartments in England, and more - all the while pondering where she may end up. With a tender and timeless text by Joshua David Stein and architectural line art by Julia Rothman, this tribute to becoming part of something greater serves children and adults alike.
Robin Jacobs
 & Nik Neves
Picturebook

The Mellons are a family of five who live in a small flat and have had enough of not having enough space so decide that they need a bigger family home. They look around some different houses but none of them are quite right so they decide to build their own house. Each family member has a request for something that the new home should have: a study, a big kitchen and even a pool. With the help of architect Masha, they set off creating their dream home, but with a bigger picture in mind – their impact on the environment.

This book follows the journey of designing and building a new house and how this can be done in a more ecological way thinking about each step and its impact on the environment – making it stand out from the array of books about more traditional houses and homes. A range of tradespeople are introduced, who are represented by a range of men and women. At each step, the green way is discussed and how this is better for the environment than the traditional building method – for example using solar panels and a green roof. Every aspect of the building process is examined and made more friendly for the planet.

The book was enjoyable to discover and included interesting facts and lots of technical vocabulary – with enough science to capture older children as well as younger primary pupils who will enjoy the visual information and narrative frame. New topic words are either explained in the text or included in the glossary at the back.


Books about what makes a home

John Burningham
Picturebook
A little boy lives in a house with his family. Unbeknown to the humans, a family of mice secretly shares the house too. But one day the mice are spotted and the mouse catcher is called in. The mice become fugitives and leave their home, which is now too dangerous for them, and they seek solace in the back garden instead. Will it ever be safe for them to return to the house?
Joe Todd-Stanton
Picturebook
From the award-winning Joe Todd-Stanton, comes an exquisite and heartfelt picture book touching on the bewildering experience of moving house. This beautiful story explores how this can affect a child's sense of belonging, but also how it can open them up to new and wonderful experiences.When Nyla has to leave her home in the countryside to start life again in the city, all she can think about is everything she misses from before. So when a comet comes crashing through the city streets and starts to glow and grow, Nyla can't resist a chance to head somewhere that feels closer to what she had before. But what starts as an escape could be just the thing to make her finally feel at home.
Britta Teckentrup
 & Patricia Hegarty
Picturebook
Wherever we may choose to roam, We need a place to call our home. Follow a little bear as he discovers a host of animal homes and more in this beautiful die-cut picture book that explores what home looks like for different kinds of creatures.
Jonny Lambert
Picturebook
A pitch perfect picture book with breathtakingly beautiful, textured illustrations and a heartwarming story from author-illustrator, Jonny Lambert.When Bear moves into a new home in the woods, his home feels empty, and Bear is a little bit lonely. With a RAT-A-TAT-TAT! on his neighbour's door, Bear quickly finds a warm smile and friendship with Hare. When a storm CRASHES through the wood, destroying Bear's home, the two friends discover that home is more than just a house . . . it's where the heart is.
Phil Earle
 & Jess Ross
Picturebook

Popular author Phil Earle offers a new picturebook with an authentic representation of a child experiencing parental separation and divorce.

Meet Florrie. Florrie has two of everything…. including two different homes. Her mum’s and her dad’s. When her parents separated, Florrie and her brothers were expected to divide their time between the two homes, and at the beginning of the book, this makes her feel a little uneasy.

This book shows how each parent works separately with her to make her feel comfortable about the situation, giving her coping mechanisms when she misses her other home. The lovely twist at the end is how Florrie is then able to help her father, when she realises that he misses her when she is not with him too.

This uplifting picture book will help children to embrace change, and could be a brilliant starting point for discussion about feelings about separation and divorce as well as about navigating negative thoughts and feelings towards changes outside of own’s own control. Beautifully illustrated by Jess Rose, the details in the pictures really bring the story alive, and provide great talking points when reading this story with your child, whether they have personally experienced separation or not.


Polly Faber
 & Melissa Crowton
Picturebook
A riotously funny picture book about kindness and community.The animals of Park View Rise all love their high-rise home. It's peaceful, calm and quiet - no one here would cause a riot... But when Honky Tonk sings much too loudly, Smart Alec's DIY goes all wrong and Sugar Plum's freshly baked treats are ruined, well, all hell breaks loose! Luckily, Kitsy Bitsy arrives just in time to teach her neighbours about the importance of kindness... and an enormous cake brings everyone together for a party!Roll-off-the-tongue rhyming text by Polly Faber and bright, lively artwork by Melissa Crowton combine in this comic, timely tale.Readers can make their own Good Neighbour Cake using the recipe at the end of the book!Every Nosy Crow paperback picture book comes with a free 'Stories Aloud' audio recording - just scan the QR code and listen along!

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