THE LITTLE, LITTLE HOUSE

In this recast version of an Eastern European tale best known from Ann McGovern’s Too Much Noise (1967), Joseph goes to wise Aunty Bella to complain that his house is too small, and she bids him bring all of his livestock inside. On alternate spreads, Souhami portrays the mounting domestic chaos in simple, brightly colored paper collages captioned only with, “But THIS is what happened . . . ”—then closes, after the animals have at last been removed, with a scene of Joseph and his family sitting around the table, all smiles. Souhami’s rendition doesn’t lend itself to audience participation as well as McGovern’s does, but figures in the illustrations are more expressively posed, and the cultural context is a little more generic. (brief, non-specific source note) (Picture book/folktale. 5-7)