Pink House at the Seashore by Deborah Blumenthal, Doug Chayka (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

A house can be more than just a shelter. Some houses are places where family traditions grow, where memories live.But what happens to the traditions and memories when the house is gone? After losing a beloved summer home to a treacherous storm, two children and their parents discover the affirming answer to this poignant question . . . together. Evocative paintings and spare text show the family combing the sand for fragments of their possessions, sharing memories, and beginning to look beyond their loss.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4-This poignant story relays how a family copes upon finding out that their beloved summer home has been destroyed by a hurricane. The two children and their parents go through a grieving process, salvaging shards of precious mementoes and remembering times they shared together. A year passes, and they return to the spot of their pink summer home, toting a red tent that "in some lights...looked pink," ready to make new memories. "Things were different in the tent, but after awhile it began to feel like home-just a new kind." For the most part, the full-spread gouache illustrations go with the tone of the story, though the facial expressions don't always match the varied emotions described. Overall, though, this a good choice on a topic not widely written about for a young audience.-Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

In the aftermath of a hurricane, a family returns to the site of its seashore vacation cottage to find "a world shaken, / turned upside down, / inside out." The small house that has been in the family for generations is now "only broken boards / and splinters of pink wood." The children search in the sand "for pieces of a lost time." The spare language, set in short, uneven lines, captures the shock, the sense of loss and the grief experienced by the family, as well as the sense of freedom that comes from creating something new. The family spends the next summer in a red tent upon which they paint blue shutters, a structure the children imagine is many things-a hospital, the Big Top and a base camp in Antarctica. Upon returning home, the children take their "make-believe house" with them, setting it up in the living room, where they "dream about summers to come." Chayka's broadly executed, colorful gouache illustrations effectively express the poignant mood of this lovingly told story that will resonate for anyone who has suffered a life-transforming loss. (Picture book. 6-10)

Product Details