Dan Giovannoni (text) and Charlotte Lane (illustrator), House, Fremantle Press, October 2024, 40 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781760994709
Dan is a screenwriter, and I think if this was a screenplay and not a book it would start: Open to pulled-back view of a lonely house in a dark and dreary landscape. It seems at once both warm and lonely.
House, an animate object, leaves its foundations to go in search of friendship. Upon finding a girl who was also on the lookout for security and companionship, House allows the girl in. She is offered a sanctuary of comfort reminiscent of ‘My Favourite Things’: cosy nooks, pleasing foods, songs and silence. Eventually the two new friends have to part, each feeling restored in the knowledge that storms pass, eventually.
This story has nuanced layers that readers could pause on to ponder on more deeply. For example, at the beginning, House recognises the feeling of loneliness, but refusing to live any longer in the place it has been built, it takes action, and makes changes, moving itself away from its isolation.
The illustrator has quite obviously used colour to depict the mood of the characters. When they are feeling alone there are set in dark, moody backgrounds. But there is enormous warmth when they are sharing and connecting.
This story has elements of myth-writing and if it were a fable from Aesop, it would be The House and the Girl. The moral would be: hope for rest and connection that lingers even after separation.
Teaching notes are available at the publisher’s website.
Reviewed by Cherie Bell
