Building Our House

PreS-Gr 2—Jonathan Bean's fictionalized memoir of his family building a house in the countryside is a fascinating tale of hard work and perseverance. The award-winning picture book (Farrar, 2013) translates well to the DVD format with Bean's clear, detailed illustrations taking on a three-dimensional quality as the camera scans the engaging pictures. The film begins with the family moving into a small trailer close to the building site, then viewers are shown the step-by-step construction process. Gathering stone, sand, rocks and lumber, the family gets the huge weekend project underway. The majority of the work is done by two parents and their two small offspring, other than the raising of the frame and moving-in day, when they rely on help from friends and other family members. Sound effects add to the work but don't compete with the reader's voice. A younger-sounding narrator may have been more fitting as the child relating the story is quite small, and a slightly longer running time of 10 to 12 minutes would have served the tale well, especially as the DVD offers a second, read-along video, which flows too rapidly for beginning readers to follow. Those quibbles aside, viewers will enjoy learning the steps needed to build a house.—Maryann H. Owen, Mt. Pleasant, WI