In My Mother's House

In My Mother's House
By Ann Nolan Clark
Illustrated By Velino Herrera
Caldecott Honor

In this book the reader gets a description of the hose of the person who is telling the story.  In this book you get a description of the house and everything that is done there.  You also get a description of how the houses are designed and arranged one in relation to the other.  You learn about the people and the lands and the lakes and the fields.  There is also a description about the cows, the sheep, the goats and the horses. Also about the trees and the plants and the arroyos, about the teas and the plants they eat as well as the wild animals and the bird and the mountains.  There is a true love for his mother's house.  What is interesting about this book is that all the writing is like a continuous poem that gets divided into many small segments and can possibly become difficult for a younger reader to follow.  The illustration technique is very unique.  The illustrations shift from color to black and white outline type illustrations.  It is a very interesting method.

I would use this book in my class to teach about a stile of poetry or about the culture of the Pueblo.
I believe that this book would be appropriate for Third through Fifth grades.