Home Place [Hardcover]

Crescent Dragonwagon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 1990 | Age Level: 4 and up

While out hiking, a family comes upon the site of an old house and finds some clues about the people that once lived there.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On a backpacking trip, a girl and her parents uncover a bit of the past when they chance upon some daffodils--"cups lifted to trumpet / the good news / of spring." Nearby they find a chimney buried in honeysuckle, a stone foundation, a glass marble, the arm of a china doll. The girl imagines a black family living there in the past, what they ate, how they talked, the songs they sang. With striking craft, Dragonwagon limns a forgotten family's day-to-day existence. Pinkney's characteristically stunning, limpid watercolors are lush in shades of greens and browns, with touches of vibrant yellow in the flowers. His evocative images present a joyous mealtime, a child carefully ribboning her hair and hardworking Uncle Ferd, "wiping the sweat from his forehead." A nice touch in the book's attractive design is the fact that paintings of the present are full page, while those set in the past are "distanced" by their frames. This lovely work closes as the girl reluctantly leaves her imaginings to rejoin her parents in the present. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3-- Pinkney's richly hued watercolors, strong with a sense of place and personality, will help draw young readers into this dreamlike reminiscence of a large, lively family whose existence echoes only faintly in the present. Deep within a lush southern woodland is the site of an old homestead, visited only by deer, squirrels, and raccoons. One spring day, a child discovers this "home place." Spurred by her curiosity about the past, she digs in the ruined foundation and discovers a marble, a horseshoe, and the arm of a china doll. These objects lead her to envision the family whose home once stood there. Children love a mystery and this is a picture book that will invite them to think about the life cycle and the riddles of the past. Primary graders may need the help of an adult in raising and exploring these questions. Dragonwagon's short, rhythmic lines, laid out like poetry, have a sometimes mystical, sometimes conversational quality. Each full-page illustration lies opposite a brief block of text printed on a soft bone-colored background. One error must be mentioned, with regret. The flowers identified as honeysuckle in the text appear as morning glories in the illustration. The book has a simple dignity that is in complete harmony with the tone set by the author and the illustrator. A wonderfully evocative work. --Carey Ayres, Port Washington Public Library, NY
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (August 30, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0027331903
• ISBN-13: 978-0027331905
• Product Dimensions: 0.2 x 8.8 x 11.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,312,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Crescent Dragonwagon, the author of the James Beard Award-winning Passionate Vegetarian, The Cornbread Gospels, Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, many children's books, and two novels, has just completed Bean by Bean.

Dragonwagon is a Southern Yankee: though born in New York, for 18 years she was innkeeper/chef/co-owner of Dairy Hollow House, an acclaimed country inn in the Ozark Mountain community of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where she resided for 36 years. But, since 2002, she has lived in Westminster West, Vermont.

Dragonwagon has the distinction of having prepared beans and cornbread for a president (Bill Clinton), titled royalty (Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia), a world-renowned feminist (Betty Friedan) and Marilyn Monroe's first biographer (Maurice Zolotow). She teaches two writing workshops, Deep Feast: Writing the World through Food, and Fearless Writing, around the world (the latter, she teaches once a year, in the Whole Enchilada version, from her own home hilltop in the Green Mountains). She has appeared on Good Morning America, Today, TVFN, & CNN.

She lives, writes, and cooks in the 1795 farmhouse which once belonged to her aunt, at which she spent summers when a child. She shares the place with her partner, filmmaker David Koff, and, often, numerous well-fed friends. An ardent gardener, she's currently growing 4 different varieties of bush beans, and 5 of pole beans. .. under the supervision of her large and amiable tabby cat, Cattywhompus (who can usually be found rolling in the catmint).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars warm story of history and remembrance, May 3, 2006

By 

Melissa Hinkson "book mama" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Home Place (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

This book is told in such a captivating tone by Ms. Dragonwagon and beautifully illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. The story will warm the heart of a "child" at any age. I recommend you read it regularly.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hauntingly beautiful, evocative; to read again and again, May 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Home Place (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

A family wandering in the woods finds an old abandoned home place and wonders who lived there. Gradually, the past and present merge and separate --- the black family who homesteaded, dreamed their own dreams, lived, cooked, did chores comes to life briefly, then recedes. But "They were here... for every year the daffodils come up / to trumpet the good news of spring / forever and forever." With a strong and mysterious sense of time and timelessness, memory and imagination, the author's quietly spare words and the illustrator's sumptous, moving pictures move together seamlessly. I have used this in my class (it is one of the books which can kindle endless discussion and serve as an easy, natural springboard for student writing), read it to my own children countless times, and bought it as a gift for friends of all ages. Anyone who has a "home place" in their past; indeed anyone who wonders about what lasts and what falls away, will respond to this moving, lovely book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book!, December 13, 2004

By 

Lynn Ellingwood "The ESOL Teacher" (Webster, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Home Place (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

I really found this book interesting and intruiging. A great book to use in a unit on archeology or communities. Very absorbing and different.