Pick up the new illustrated children’s book Home by Carson Ellis, and you and your kids will be instantly transported to the many different places that people around the world call home. The celebrated illustrator of the fantastic Wildwood YA series has drawn me into wonderfully diverse living spaces in her new book and I can’t recommend it more highly. From city apartments and country farms to French castles and Norse temples, my kids are fascinated to see that so many people live in places beyond the kind of building we happen to call home.

The story reminds me of the classic children’s book A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman, which describes home as anthills and snail shells and dog kennels and houses, although without the same rhyme-y pattern. And there’s just enough going on in the pictures to engage older kids in more conversations, but not so much text that squirmy younger kids will get bored and want to move on.

Plus, I love that just for fun, Ellis includes a few fantastical places to stir up kids’ imaginations like the Old Lady’s shoe and Atlantis. Which no, is not a touristy waterpark resort in the Bahamas.

You can find Home by Carson Ellis at our affiliate Amazon or your favorite local bookstore.

HOME. Copyright © 2015 by Carson Ellis. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.