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Rust, Kari

The House at the End of the Road

40 pp. | Owlkids | September, 2019 | Trade ISBN 978-1-77147-335-4 $16.95
(2) K-3 A child narrator recounts events from the previous summer, when she stayed at her grandmother's house with her brother and cousin and befriended an elderly neighbor. While cycling, the kids discover a rundown house at the end of the road. Thinking it abandoned--and potentially haunted--one of them throws a rock at a window. It doesn't break, but a ghostly figure appears in the window, causing the kids to make a swift departure. Guilt weighs on them until they confess to Grandma, who helps cultivate a friendship between the children and the house's occupant, Mr. Peterson. They spend the summer exploring the antiques-filled home and getting to know Mr. Peterson--until one day the children arrive to learn that the house has been condemned and their new friend has moved to a retirement community. Inspired by gifts Mr. Peterson gave them (a notebook, a camera, and some gardening tools), the children assemble a box of mementos for him before going home at summer's end. The illustrations, hand-drawn and digitally colored, contain a mix of panels, word balloons, and traditional full-page pictures. Brief dialogue and small details in the visual narrative add humor and reveal characters' emotions and backstories. The comics-inspired format and sensitive themes about looking deeply, questioning assumptions, and finding beauty everywhere make this a memorable offering.
Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

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