Kildee House (The Newbery Honor Roll)

Rating:
Summary: I love sharing this book with young and adult friends!
Review: Jerome Kildee is a shy stonecutter who retires to the redwood forest to be alone. He finds, instead, friendship for the first time in his life. Delightfully simple, soothing, and serene, this little book takes the reader into the heart of an unassuming man who finds joy in the animals and children he learns to know; the reader has the sublime opportunity of gaining the friendships Jerome finds in spite of his self-imposed isolation. His quiet ways allow for the local animals and children to invade his space, and that is when the fun begins. Jerome learns to relate to a variety of personalities and resolve the issues in an unusual community of innocence. The descriptions of his little home will charm you enough to want to retreat there. For anyone who enjoys nature and self discovery, Kildee house is a book to savor. I have read Jerome's story about 30 times. I love sharing it with the people I care about because it has never failed to delight and satisfy its new friends.

Rating:
Summary: I love sharing this book with young and adult friends!
Review: Jerome Kildee is a shy stonecutter who retires to the redwood forest to be alone. He finds, instead, friendship for the first time in his life. Delightfully simple, soothing, and serene, this little book takes the reader into the heart of an unassuming man who finds joy in the animals and children he learns to know; the reader has the sublime opportunity of gaining the friendships Jerome finds in spite of his self-imposed isolation. His quiet ways allow for the local animals and children to invade his space, and that is when the fun begins. Jerome learns to relate to a variety of personalities and resolve the issues in an unusual community of innocence. The descriptions of his little home will charm you enough to want to retreat there. For anyone who enjoys nature and self discovery, Kildee house is a book to savor. I have read Jerome's story about 30 times. I love sharing it with the people I care about because it has never failed to delight and satisfy its new friends.

Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming Story
Review: This is a heartwarming story, very well written, about a man who builds a home on the side of a giant redwood tree. A family of skunks claim the house as their own, and the man is kind to them. Other forest animals visit, as well. The man doesn't have the heart to turn the animals away, nor can he turn away children from two fueding families. My eight year old son loved this book at bedtime. It's a gentle story written decades ago, in a gentler time. Highly recommended.