The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Ahlberg, Allan

The Snail House

32 pp. | Candlewick | March, 2001 | Trade ISBN 0-7636-0711-8 $$13.99

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Gillian Tyler. Grandma tells Michael and Hannah a story about children just like them. The story children "all of a sudden got so very, very small" that they lived in the shell of a garden snail. Their adventures are suggested by Grandma's own lush garden, where the fall of an apple is an earthquake. The exquisite pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations capture the fascination of the miniature. This is a book to pore over again and again for its entrancing details.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2001