A Boy and a House is a wordless picture book about a young child who follows a cat into a building. The illustrations are gorgeous, but the "story" it tells is bland and generic and I wish there'd been more going on.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

I absolutely loved this book. The illustration conveyed a tone which helped carry the boy along on his adventure. Searching and exploring through the maze of beauty to find a connection.

Beautiful, heartwarming, and very creative.

Such a cute, wordless picture book telling a story about a boy who discovers a house after following a cat inside. The pictures take you through the house - all filled with splendid detail that you don't want to miss - all the way to the top of the house where a surprise awaits him. Beautiful illustrations throughout!

I absolutely adored this gorgeously illustrated picture book, complete with a mystery, curious cat, comical mice and a great ending. "A Boy and a House" is Slovenian artist, Maja Kastelic's début picture book. It was a simple and wordless story of a young boy's search through an apparently empty house. I particularly liked the use of sepia watercolours to depict the story.

Anyone who appreciates well-illustrated picture books will love this.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from the publisher via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This book is beautiful. I plan to buy a hard copy very soon and have already shared it with colleagues who have felt similarly.

A Boy and a House is a wordless picture book that tells the simple story of a boy following a cat into a house but it is so much more than that. The detail on each page is incredible and I have found new things each time I've read it. I especially loved the references to other books. I won't spoil these, but look closely and you will see other book covers displayed in picture frames, quotes pinned to the walls and well-known titles on the shelves.

This is a book that I know I'll be coming back to for years to come.

This recent North American edition of Kastelic’s Slovenian original is a visual treat.

The “plot” of this title is basic: An unnamed boy roams the city, happens upon a feline guide, enters a mysterious old house.

The detail of each page, however, is the opposite of basic. One could look through the pages many times and still not catch all of the minute elements that make this book so captivating.

On first glance, it appears that this is a story without words. Looking more closely at this richly illustrated title, it appears that words are everywhere, written on walls, alleys, pieces of paper posted here and there. Words surround the boy and accompany him on his journey. In one example, there is this charming note of guidance:

Manifesto!

1. Look at the stars!

2. And again!

3.

4. Always

5. Forever

This title is perfect for young readers who enjoy studying detail and reading a story multiple times. Adults will enjoy pondering the outcome of the boy’s journey.

Thank you to Annick Press and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to review.

A Boy and A House – Maja Kastelic

Children’s Fiction – Annick Press – Publication Date: September 11, 2018

A Boy and a House by Maja Kastelic. Technically edited by Jernej Rodica. ©2018. Age Range: 4-7 years. Grade Level: Kindergarten-2nd grade. Kindle—Hardcover is 32 pages. Publisher: Annick Press. 5 Stars.

This is a picture book totally without text. The artwork is beautiful and detailed and adds mystery as it tells a great story of finding and making a new friend by following a cat though an old building. Highly recommend for young children and for those of any age who enjoy great art!

I love wordless picture books and this one is certainly no exception. Beautifully illustrated pages contain so much detail that each page is a visual adventure.

Beautifully illustrated in a simple yet endearing style. I love it!

This wordless picture book was delightful! It follows a boy, following a cat up and up through a European townhouse, following a train of discarded hand-drawn pictures until he finds a new friend :-) I especially loved the details in all the illustrations - the recurring mice were my favorite, and what about that iguana tail going into the crawlspace door??

Maja Kastelic’s atmospheric illustrations in A Boy and a House trace a boy as he follows a cat into a spooky house in the evening. The picture book has no words, but the ending doesn’t really make sense with what came before. The illustrations greatly outpace the plot.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Annick Press in exchange for an honest review.

I'm confused. Who is looking after this kid? Is it the women with the bun from the first page? Or the woman with a pony tail on the next page? How come no one is chasing after him to prevent him from entering a creepy looking building? I am fine with a boy exploring a new universe and making a new friend, but in a secure environment, as the boy was no more than 6 years old. The illustrations are full of details, but many of them are unsettling to me: the doll on the chair, the tail of the reptile in the cabinet, the dead fox serving as a scarf... This is simply not my kind of book.

Sometimes a book is so good and yet so uncomfortable at the same time that it's really difficult to rate. A Boy and a House is an aesthetically pleasing wordless picture book that made me intensely uncomfortable, even while I appreciated the artwork. Why? Because the dingy colour palette, combined with the subject matter, made me really fear for the child. This appears to be a European title, and I get the feeling that Europeans aren't quite as worried about child luring and abductions as North Americans are. The little boy following a trail of mysterious drawings into the bowels of a house--unaccompanied, and at night, no less--felt uncomfortably like he was being lured to me. (Yes, the explanation and ending are innocent enough, but that doesn't erase the discomfort I felt the whole time I was "reading" this.)

The illustrations are cute, and there's plenty to look at in every picture (including some unexpected surprises). Perhaps if the setting had been more fantasy-like and less real-world urban, I wouldn't have had such a visceral reaction to the thought of a tiny boy trespassing in a nearly abandoned building all by himself.

This wordless picture book is a delight to behold at any age. The illustrations are stunning and whimsical . The muted hues with burst of color here and there is gorgeous. With every turn of the page the eye is drawn to all the details presented. Absolutely wonderful.

A Boy and a House is a short wordless and whimsical picture book that tells a story of a boy following a cat. On the first page, we see a little boy leaving his house on Grimm Street at dusk and is walking down the dimly a street. There’s a woman walking ahead of him; she’s wearing a red dress and a green hat. Apparently hearing his echoing footfalls, she glances back at the boy.

The lights are on in the houses on the street and we see their occupants going about their evening. Some are chatting, a man is having dinner, a woman is gazing at herself in front of a mirror and a girl is gazing out the window dreamily.

The boy walks past a man walking his dog and an elderly man riding his bicycle. A few blocks away, on Andersen Street, he approaches a black cat sitting in front of the door that has been standing ajar. The black cat appears to have been waiting for the boy in front of the house. The boy follows the cat into the house.

The hall is cluttered with flyers on the walls, a baby pram and graffitis scrawled across the walls. There's a sign on the wall just by the entrance that says, “Close the doors”. Another sign on the wall says, "Kindly ask you all to take care of this house...Keeper". Below this message is the author’s name, Maja. A red umbrella is propped on the wall by another door that’s been left slightly ajar, at the west wing. There are six mailboxes on the wall and a discarded drawing on the floor. The drawing is of a girl in the sun.

The little boy picks up the drawing and follows the cat up a series of staircases. The cat patiently waits for the boy on the landing of the first staircase. The boy follows the cat through a room with a bookcase stacked with books. The cat walks ahead and waits for him behind a lantern atop a stack of tomes on the floor. The boy follows the cat into a dining room and bends to retrieve another drawing on the floor.

The cat gallops up ahead of him, looking back every few leaps to make sure the boy is behind him. The boy runs down a corridor lined with huge paintings in gilt frames. He walks past more bookcases, framed pictures on the wall, birdcages, a red wingback chair, a red unspooled yarn, a vinyl record player, a globe, and bric-a-brac littered around. He picks up more discarded drawings on the way.

Finally, the cat leads him up another spiral staircase to an attic where he finds a little girl making paper planes. Together, they climb up onto the roof of the attic to watch their paper planes and birds soaring on thermal updrafts. By now, we see it's sunrise.

I really liked the of the illustrations of this book. I loved how the author uses only pictures, leaving the book to the reader’s interpretation. The ending left me wondering if the boy left his house in the early hours of the morning or at nightfall. Brilliant!
I thought the concept of the muted tones the author used in the book and the subtle messages she left in each room was well done. I I loved the atmosphere and was curious to find out what or where the black cat was leading the little boy. I read this book several times over to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

This is a debut novel by the author and I would love to read more of her books in future. I’m definitely getting the print copy to add to my shelves. Highly recommended to kids and those who appreciate well-crafted picture books filled with underlying messages and subtle beauty.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Annick Press, and Maja Kastelic for an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Oh, the illustrations in this book! The color scheme creates such a fabulous atmosphere. The use of light to direct the audience’s attention to what the boy is seeing and the illusion of texture…magnificent. And though I love illustrations that are well done, it is particularly important in A Boy and a House because it has no text! Yes, that’s what I said. No. Text. The story is in the pictures, and with the exception of a few sayings subtly placed in unusual places, you must pay attention to see where the story is headed. Even more intriguing, the more you “read” the illustrations, the richer the story gets. I’ve gone back and reread it at least three times in this first sitting, each time scanning different parts of each page and finding something I’d missed before. Such a treat!

So, what is the story about? A boy appears to be walking home, getting distracted along the way, until he sees a cat in a well-lit doorway. Naturally, he must follow the cat, and in fact, the cat seems to want to be followed, waiting at way-points as the boy finds his way through a house that is most certainly not his. Along the way, he finds drawings, picking them up as he finds them, like gathering the bread crumbs that are leading him to somewhere special. At the end of the trail is a girl his age, making her drawings into paper airplanes, sailing them from the balcony of the highest floor of the house, sending them soaring with the birds. Or at least, that is how I see it at the most basic level. The beauty of a story in pictures is that the story is unlikely to be interpreted exactly the same by each reader. With no words for direction, the reader must create the words in their own head. Good stuff!

Another book I will be buying in print because it is an absolute MUST have for me, as well as my children. And I will be on the hunt for more work by Maja Kastellic because it is superb!

Note: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.

This is a beautiful wordless picture book. The illustrations are so detailed and you can find something new every time you read it. I think kids will love finding all of the secrets hidden throughout the house.

This book is testimony to the fact that a picture is worth a thousand words. It visually portrays the curiosity of childhood, and it also shows that curiosity does not always kill the cat (and there is a cat here, of course!). And does it ever so sweetly with beautiful, whimsical, magical, detailed illustrations. There are stories to be found in the details; do read the fine-print here – you will discover more tales (tails too!) The boy does not seem to get distracted much by all those details (except for doing one thing, as you can see later) but is focused on the light, on the cat (and I loved that!)

The book begins with the boy making his way down a street – Grimm Street. Maja Kastelic makes use of shadow and lights effectively to show all that is happening around the boy, on the street, and inside the buildings the boy is passing by. A trumpeter, a lady getting ready for an evening out maybe, mice darting about and having animated conversations, and so much more. And then the boy approaches the house – #34 on Andersen Street. The open door, the lighted house, and the cat, are enough to evoke his curiosity, and he enters. His journey through that seemingly empty but maybe occupied house takes him through rooms filled with with toys, and books, and all we can expect to see in any home, and with scattered drawings waiting to be picked up. As he continues through, what will he discover? Go ahead and order the book here for yourself to find out!

As I went through it a second time, and then many more second times with others (my teen and tween), I discovered new surprises each time. Looking through it with my kids’ eyes opened up other avenues of imagination.

Being wordless makes this book widely accessible – no barriers of language or age. Delightful and detailed illustrations open up a world full of possibilities. The sepia-toned art makes the whole experience nostalgic and we walk through vintage-style pages to write our own stories that are left untold.
Possible activities:
Play an I Spy game. Note down details on each page and research them. I found a few fascinating facts and have more details to go through yet. And as a game to play with you, dear readers, here is something I have. Here is my list of discoveries from the book so far – you can open it up at a later date to do a compare and send me a note to let me know what you found so I can add it to my list.
Take turns at writing down your own stories and compare them.
Maybe, each of you can write down what you think happens on single pages and then put them together for a totally different take on the tale.

So, should you get it? Yes, I would say one for yourself and one(or more) to gift to that budding illustrator and/or that imaginator in your life.

Rating: A+
Reread Level: 5/5
Reading Level: 4-7 years (but I say all ages!)

Thank you to Annick Press Ltd. and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

This wordless book takes a small moment and gives us a grand story. I like the concept of the gift and friendship that can be found in these amazing illustrations.

Rating: 2.5

Though I recognize their developmental and artistic value, I don’t “read” many wordless picture books. As a result, I’m not sure how equipped I am to judge their merit. As an adult, I find that I need words in order to find the story in picture books and graphic novels. Maja Kastelic does provide some words (as well as letters and symbols) in her book, <u>A Boy and a House,</u> but these are part of her illustrations—messages written on walls mostly, but also titles and names on the spines of books—G.G. Marquez, The Summer Book—and the covers of record albums—“Cash” (as in Johnny?) rather than actual text. The overall import of the messages is not entirely clear.

As alluring and mysterious as I found Kastelic’s art, in the end I can’t say I could figure out the point of her book—what she was actually trying to achieve with it. I also haven’t had the opportunity to “test-drive” the book with kids, which can be a really enlightening experience. (Kids often notice things that I don’t.) I also wonder if reading a print copy would have made a difference. The e-book version I had was certainly frustrating because it the images (even when expanded) were small on my i-pad, the artist’s palette is so dark, and her work so intricately detailed. I had the sense that there was some code I needed to break in order to understand what I was seeing and that I ultimately lacked the smarts to unlock the secrets of the book.

The “narrative” (if it can be called that when a conventional text is lacking) begins with a small boy exiting his house on Grim Street, apparently at nightfall. The house is located right beside the one where, according to a wall plaque, the poet “Francois Sad” once lived. The lights are on at the boy’s and others’ houses along this very European-looking street, and the reader can see people getting on with their evening—talking, eating, gazing at themselves in mirrors, or looking down on the street from upper-floor windows. The boy is on his way, apparently with a specific destination in mind. A woman in a red dress is ahead of him, but looks back, perhaps hearing his excited footsteps. A man walking a small dog passes him, but some graffiti instructs the boy to look forward.

In the end, the boy ends up at a house on Andersen street (Hans Christian?). There, a black cat appears to have been waiting for him at a door that is slightly ajar. Inside, the untidy front hall has mailboxes on one wall, as though the place has been divided into apartments. There are messages on the wall, one seemingly from the author (the name “Maja” is visible) that directs people to take care of the house; another, scrawled on the wall, reminds those who’ve entered to close doors. On the floor, there is a child’s drawing of a girl in the sun.

After picking up this drawing, the boy is led by the cat up a series of staircases. Higher and higher in the house he goes, past book cases, bird cages, comfy arm chairs, an old record player, chandeliers and lanterns, walls of framed art work. At one point, the reader sees what appears to be part of an alligator’s behind a partially closed door. And there are more wall messages: about not planning so much, about letting life surprise you, and about looking at the stars.

At the top of the house, the boy finds the artist: a little girl. Together they do look out at the stars, as well as fold the little girl’s scattered drawings into paper airplanes, which they send sailing out into the night.

On the Picturebook Makers website, the artist Maja Kastelic writes that her book is a “silent” one, “about a little boy’s morning wandering [I saw it as evening], and also, or even more, a story about going up and following the light, about curiosity and daring, getting lost and finding, friendship, secrets, and also about hoping for and believing in happy endings. I also wished to make it as a homage to literature, illustration, and to the nostalgic beauty of old times and timeless things.”

I suppose Kastelic has achieved the things she wanted to, and she has produced some lovely art in the process. Having said that, I find the book just too nebulous and vague to fully satisfy—which doesn’t mean there aren’t some children who will enjoy puzzling over the pictures. Next time, I’d prefer to see Kastelic work with an established children’s author who has a stronger sense of story. I think she could do a lot to enrich another’s written text, but for me, at least, her illustrations on their own just aren’t enough..

Thank you to Net Galley and Annick Press for providing me with a digital copy of this book for review purposes.

I drawn into story that involved houses. This is one of the reason I chose to read this book :)
This is a wordless book filled with gorgeous illustrations. I must say that I kind of didn't get that the ending, but it's still a heartwarming story.