Follow the Line through the House - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 3—A companion to the author's entertaining Follow the Line (Viking, 2006). Here, Ljungkvist takes her acrobatic line and rhyming text into a house and invites children to locate common items inside a toolbox, a refrigerator, a medicine cabinet, a toy box, etc. While the line challenges and trains the eye to follow it, the text poses some questions and suggests activities such as counting like objects, choosing clothing to wear to the beach or to a party, and deciding what foods are needed to make a sandwich. The author uses a mixture of bright and muted colors and includes some of her daughter's drawings to decorate the playroom. Some family photos and even a postcard written in Swedish appear in the attic treasure box. Objects like an old rotary phone and a record player will likely intrigue children and possibly even stump them; that just adds to the fun. The last page cleverly sends children back to look again by asking, "As you were exploring, did you see a mouse?" or "A few things were put in spots that were wrong. Where do those things really belong?" While not as flashy bright as Walter Wick's "I Spy" books (Scholastic), this clever, interactive offering is a welcome addition to the genre. Children will line up to check it out.—Kirsten Cutler, Sonoma County Library, CA
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