My Father’s House

Kathi Appelt
Viking- Penguin Group (2007)
ISBN 9780670036691
Reviewed by Cayden (age 3-1/2) and Max (age 20-months) Aures and Mom for Reader Views (5/08)


Based on John 14:2, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions,” the book goes on to explore the many homes of different animals such as bears, bullfrogs, starfish and artic foxes. 

Cayden:  Looking at the cover:  “I don’t think deer and bunnies live in houses but I know three little pigs that do.”

Cayden:  “Whippoorwills are birds.”

Cayden:  “Where is the spider?”
Cayden:  “There he is- he’s catching raindrops!  Look, there are three!”
Max:  “Spider!  Three!”

Max:  “Rainbow”
Cayden:  “Look at the rainbow!  Let’s name the colors.”

Cayden:  “Look!  There is a constellation like in my Dora sticker book from the Easter Bunny!”

Cayden:  “My favorite page is the one with the coyotes because they say “Aaawoooo” and because there is a picture of a rainbow and a moon!”

Parent’s comments:

“My Father’s House” is illustrated by Raul Colon with beautiful detail.  My children enjoyed looking at all of the animals and their habitats and learning that even though they don’t live in houses they still have homes.  The text is very poetic and even though my children did not understand what some of the verses meant they still got the general gist of the book.  The text and illustrations are very unique and are successful in passing along an important message to our children. 

Make comment on weblog