Book Description
for Clancy & Millie and the Very Fine House by Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Clancy’s family has just moved from a small house to a city apartment, and he’s filled with anxiety about how different—and big—everything is. The boxes from the move are stacked in the yard behind his building, and he’s sitting inside the cozy, contained space of one when Millie appears. “Can I play too?” Soon the two are transforming the empty boxes into extraordinary structures as they pretend to be the Three Little Pigs. Libby Gleeson’s spot-on understanding of a child’s anxiety is perfectly matched by Freya Blackwood’s imaginative illustrations, in which the fantastic box structures—while impossible in reality—echo Clancy’s distorted perception of how big and unwelcoming he felt his new home to be. Clancy’s new, urban environment gains more and more color in the illustrations as his feelings transform, thanks to the warmth and reassurance of a new friendship. (Ages 4–7)
CCBC Choices 2012. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2012. Used with permission.