A Very Special House

"A Very Special House" reminds me of the simple pleasures of the imagination. You're never at a want for little things to appreciate in life, when you have just a bit of imagination - and that's what this is about.

As Maurice Sendak's sparsely illustrated little boy dances about the book's pages drawing imaginary friends and objects, Ruth Krauss's simple, rhyming prose almost invites us into a little dance and song of our own. This seems like a terrific book to remember when you need just a bit more levity in your step, or a distraction from your problems. There's nothing quite the cure like the imagination.

How is it that this is first time I've ever encountered this book?! It was available when I was a child, the creators are famous, it's won a Caldecott, but in all my parenting and teaching experiences I don't believe I've ever seen a reference to it, much less read it.

Well, that's a shame. My sons would probably have enjoyed this a lot, back when they would innocently make up their own monologue songs. Removed as I am from children now, I could not read this aloud coherently, but back then, with the rhythm of early childhood imagination all around me, I would have been able to.

What adventures await in the house in *your* head?

This story is about a child's imagination and the house is inside his brain and all he imagines.
While the pictures by Maurice Sendak are great, I didn't like the text of this book. It's full of words that aren't real and sentences that contain very bad grammar. I couldn't follow it well, and my students in special ed. had no idea what was going on.
Theme: imagination

I personally think the book was okay, it has it's light bulb moments. I didn't realize to almost the end that the whole time the house was in his head. An imaginary house. Every character on the pages of this book was in his head, imaginary. It took me a minute to realize this because I think that I was reading too much into the book.

At first the book seems a little silly, but in the end it is all about imagination and creativity. The little boy talks about a very special house filled with silly and crazy things, but this house is only inside his "head, head, head".

Genre: Fiction
Age(s): 4-8

The story's pretty cute and whimsical, the illustrations what we've come to love from Sendak.

Fantastic, creative story about a little boy's ideal house. The pictures are great!