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ellielabbett's review against another edition
4.0
House Held up By Trees tells the story of man’s battle against nature. A father works tirelessly and obsessively, preening his lawn to a barren ‘perfection’. His rejection of the natural world is tangible, and all the while his children embrace the beauty and creative opportunities that it has to offer. There is an interesting parallel drawn between the father’s outlook upon nature and the implicit deterioration of his relationship with his children. I would be intrigued to hear children’s thoughts on the link with loss.
For me, Kooser’s narrative spoke quietly as Klassen’s illustrations progressively began to roar with change and in retaliation of the resistance of all things natural. There are some interesting things being done with perspective here in representing the rise of nature, possibly suggesting that the protagonist may not be whom it first appeared. Whilst I enjoyed Kooser’s words, the power of Klassen’s perspective possibly spoke louder for me, and it could have been intriguing to remove the words and see the impact with children- particularly in the second part of the story.
For me, Kooser’s narrative spoke quietly as Klassen’s illustrations progressively began to roar with change and in retaliation of the resistance of all things natural. There are some interesting things being done with perspective here in representing the rise of nature, possibly suggesting that the protagonist may not be whom it first appeared. Whilst I enjoyed Kooser’s words, the power of Klassen’s perspective possibly spoke louder for me, and it could have been intriguing to remove the words and see the impact with children- particularly in the second part of the story.
katebrarian's review against another edition
3.0
I tagged with my "depressing" tag but I don't think it's depressing so much as melancholy. I loved the illustrations, obviously, because I love Jon Klassen to bits and his illustrations really capture melancholy quite well. The story didn't quite do it for me - a house's people all move away and then house gets pushed up to the sky by the trees all growing around it. It paints a beautiful picture, but it personally didn't touch my heart so much. Maybe it was because, in this library copy I read, some monster underlined a bunch of words in PEN.
rachel_from_avid_bookshop's review against another edition
3.0
This is a picture book for tree lovers that gives the history of one house and the trees around it. Klassen's illustrations are beautiful and poignant.
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