This oversized picture book features a glimpse into the lives of one apartments' inhabitants on one very busy day that includes a birthday, a brand new sibling, new neighbors, and much much more!

Dubuc's entertaining picture books have lots going on in them and this one is extra big in size so you can get a good look at everything around the apartment on every page. We have lots of fun following along with the text but also love finding all the extra little storylines and flipping back and forth to see what's different!

One eventful day at 3 Maple Street, documenting all the activities of the animals who live in a small apartment building. We see the ways that the animals help each other and celebrate together.

With the bisected view of the building, it reminds me of reading Busytown books as a kid! Lots to look at and to talk to kids about.

This plot is easy enough to follow, everything going on in a building in a day with a central focus on one family. The other apartments are primarily mentioned as the affect the planned birthday party. The illustrations are the real appeal here, as we can see everything happening on every page. There's plenty to discover here.

–Ryan’s Review of the Writing–

Marianne Dubuc’s new picture book, Your House, My House, almost seems like one of those seek-and-find books my kids loved so much in their k‑1 years. On every page of this book, a little block of text is tucked into the leaves of a tree at the top left while the rest of the page–the bulk of it–offers a look inside a multi-level house full of animals engaged in a variety of actions. Yes, it’s a very special day at 3 Maple Street since it’s Little Rabbit’s birthday. But there’s so much more going on at the same time.

I confess that I find it a bit challenging to connect the text to the characters being referenced since the art is disproportionately large on the page. I’m almost more inclined to just peruse the pictures and imagine my own stories to pair up with the interesting characters versus try to bring the existing text into some kind of connection with the art. Is that a good thing? I’m not sure what to think about it.

Since my responsibility in these reviews is to focus on the story, though, I’ll leave it to Kelly to dive deep into the compelling artwork. While I have lots of appreciation for this book as a whole, I’m giving this a slightly lower ranking than I’d give were I reviewing the entire book as a single thing. With it being such a clearly art-centric book, there’s almost no other option.

It’s worth checking out, though. Let’s not lose track of that fact.

4 out of 5 pencils



–Kelly’s Review of the Illustrations–

I’d like to ask Marianne Dubuc if she’s a fan of the book What Do People Do All Day? after pouring over her new book Your House, My House. Before I even received the book to review, the cover of her book struck a chord deep inside of me. I ripped tape off of boxes from my recent move, to find my own tattered copy of Richard Scarry’s book.

Was it the cross-sectioned home revealing the inside of the building and goings-on of what appears to be an early twentieth century, very large old apartment building? The viewer never sees the house with its front wall. That invisible wall allows us to take in all that happens on a very, very busy day at 3 Maple Street.

The SUPREMELY detailed drawings in Marianne’s book appear to be done in great, old-fashioned pencil and watercolor. Simply–the best. Some touches of colored pencil, here and there. The palette emits a sunny day in soft washes with just the right amount of puddling. My inner art geek is dying to know. Did she work to size? (which means the size of the printed book.) I wonder if that’s the case because there is so much detail. I would imagine working larger to fit it all in, but if Marianne did that, perhaps all of this lovely graphite would close up and darken and lose its silvery tone.

These are the thoughts that fill my head when inspecting another illustrator’s work.

The details are ABUNDANT and the art tells most of the story. The writing here is mostly visual but WHOOO BOY, what kinds of lists Marianne must have made to keep this all straight as she drew! The day of the tiny Bunny’s birthday is filled with four floors of activity, one tree, two sides of the house, and the street out front. The inhabitants are all drawn with charm and deceptive simplicity. Marianne manages to convey all kinds of mood and emotion in her characters. An annoyed Owl, a sick Bear, Terrible Two Mice Triplets, Expectant Fox Family, Hedgehogs waiting for Dad, Cats moving in, Rabbits burning baked goods, Birds in the branches, a Post-Cat, a Goldilocks breaking and entering, a Wolf chasing down some pigs and a Little Red Riding Hood walking on by. The tiniest of the characters, the ghost, the ladybug, the bee, the mice children, and a very odd Gnome are the only ones that are hardest to read.

Some of their drawings got tight. It was the Gnome that made me put this book onto my Cintiq and blow it up. I stared. ”IS THAT A…GNOME? A GNOME, TOO??” I started to question my own eyes and rubbed them and wondered if Marianne had eye strain, too, after creating the art. It is quite a feat to draw what is the visual equivalent to a silent movie. I had to go back through all of the pages and see where and when this crazy Gnome came into 3 Maple Street! By making me do that, I knew, Marianne had hooked me into this book experience.

I imagine a child POURING over this book, over and over and over to see all of the details, just as I did with my own Scarry book. This feels very classic, looks very classic, and is illustrated with a lot of class. It feels very real in these times that we stay so close to home and perhaps feel so much more together than we have for a long time.

My ONLY wish? That the book was BIG. 11x15 BIG , like my old Richard Scarry book.

Pure pencil, pure watercolors, pure picture book perfection.

4 out of 5 colored pencils

This was a really cute book! I really want to read it physically instead of digitally so that I can really study all of the detail on each page. The story was really cute and I liked that it took place in a sort of boarding house. The art was great and I loved that there were different stories happening in the art that weren't happening in the text. It was a quick little story about a bunny with a birthday who invites his neighbors to celebrate with him. I want more stories out of this little shared house. I feel like it would be so cute to learn about all of the tenants!

'Your House, My House tells the story of a very busy apartment complex. As the rabbit family prepares for a birthday party, you can see the commotion and business that is happening with all the other animal families that live in the apartment complex. I like how each page was illustrated in a manner where kids can "peak" into other apartments. They are able to get the inside-version of how the different families are interacting. It's a pretty higher-level concept with a picture book. I think my seven-year-old would get a lot more out of it than my toddler.

A Cross-Section of Life

I was not particularly wild about this book. It shows a cross-sectional view of an apartment house, I guess, or other multifamily dwelling with lots of different animal families living in it. Depending on the age and appreciation of logic that your child might have, they might question how these families all get into their proper apartments, and why the apartments only have two rooms (kitchen and bedroom typically). They might also question why it takes several two-page spreads for animals to go up or down the stairs while the story has clearly moved on. I thought the text on the page was teeny tiny. Perhaps it is better in the physical book than the PDF ARC copy I received. There really wasn't much to the story other than it was a big day for two of the characters: a baby fox was born and a young rabbit had a birthday. Much appeared to be going on in each two-page spread, most of it not being discussed whatsoever in the text. I found this book tedious.

This book is definitely one that you'll want a physical copy of, as opposed to an electronic copy. The illustrations are wonderfully detailed, which can be a little difficult to see on a screen. There is plenty on each page to keep little ones busy, so while the story isn't extremely detailed, there is lots to talk about. It's definitely not a classroom book, but one to lap-read with kids who delight in pointing at pictures and telling you what they see. Overall, very cute and recommended as a physical book to have at home.

This was just ok. The pictures are nice, but busy and I think I really lost a lot of the enjoyment by reading it digitally. This needs to be a book in hand sort of thing to see the full spread to really see what all the different characters are doing next all over the house. A library must!

Cute book about 3 animal families that live on three separate floors of an apartment building. Each spread shows a cross section illustration of the building so you can see what everyone is doing. The illustrations remind me of Richard Scarry books. It's Little Rabbit's birthday, Little Fox's baby brother is born, one family is moving, and another has a parent coming home from a trip. So the book covers a variety of topics, but very quickly.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have a real nostalgic love for books like this where you see a cross section of living space, especially when it is animals living cozy lives (Richard Scarry, Brambly Hedge, all of that!) So this fills that need while having a very simple story that doesn't take much to follow.

That said, the story is so very sparse that I wanted more going on in the pictures. There are several fairy tale characters that show up in the backgrounds and have nothing to do with the story but I didn't really find that charming. Where most books like this would follow through the whole day and show real differences, some of the pages here are mere moments after each other, someone takes three or four double spreads to go up a flight of stairs once etc. The fox family leaves to have a baby and the owl comes home to go to bed, but there just wasn't enough showing the passage of time.

I'm sure there are kids who would love this, but I wasn't as charmed as I would like, or as I would expect given the nature of the book being right up my alley.

Your House, My House is an extremely cute and friendly book for young ages but just not classroom material. The book is a reading level for above-average 1st graders and average 2nd graders. The topic is not an engaging topic unless a child is waiting for a sibling to be born. So while the illustration and ideas are cute it's not one I would purchase for my classroom.

This book is so charming, and I would have loved it as a kid. I definitely think of this style of book as "lookin books" where there's so much to see and take in that you can't possibly do it in one sitting. I think my friend's 4 year old would LOVE this, and there's so much to talk about that it won't be absolutely insufferable to read over and over. Sadly not really something I could read at story time, but a book I will definitely recommend to families as a lap-read.

I loved the attention to detail this book has. The illustrations alone tell a story and very pleasing to look at. Great for bedtime stories.

An absolutely delightful experience for parents and their young readers with a charming bounty of picture reading opportunities. My daughter and I have read and celebrated the book many times.

I received this book from Netgalley for honest review

Your House, My House Picture book with beautiful illustrated about the daily life of people who lived in an apartment together and the story that follow about Little rabbit birthday and Little Fox new baby brother quite good but not really having strong story.

Because I read it in digital format, some of the illustrations were cut off and it made me not really enjoy the illustrations and stories. In my opinion, the book is better if it is read in physical book form. In addition, the addition of illustrations of fairy tale characters as residents of the apartment.

This book suitable for parents who want to read along or reading aloud with their kids, and having some seek-and-find games or making up some stories about the others apartment resident.

Thank you Netgalley and kids can press from providing digital Arc.

What a busy day for Little Rabbit and his family! I have always enjoyed picture books where you can read them over and over again and find something new in the illustrations each time. This book is just like that. I enjoy the author introducing young kids to the big events we go through in life.

I am guilty of judging books by their covers and this cover totally drew me in! Before you even open the book, children will be mesmerized by all the goings on of the apartment house shown. I loved the use of various animal family units within and all the little details within each apartment and on every page.

The story narration is decent but I have to say that the story told through the illustrations was a lot more compelling. Having part of the story in illustration form will help develop skills of observation and focus in children. And I loved the surprise cameos of characters from other children's books like the three little pigs, Goldilocks and Red Ridinghood.

I was actually disappointed when the story ended because the illustrations left a few things incomplete. Would Red be bothered by the wolf? What was that creature lurking in a dark corner of the attic? Perhaps parents and readers can finish the story in their own way--or end it differently every time! This is a book I highly recommend--who doesn't love a book that encourages exploration, attention to detail and exercising one's imagination? Definely 5 out of 5 stars!

You can pre-order your copy today on Amazon. The book releases October 6, 2020 and would make a fabulous gift for any child, grandchild, elementary teacher or librarian.

Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of Your House, My House from NetGalley for the purpose of review. No other compensation was received.

It's a busy day at 3 Maple Street!

For the inquisitive readers, this book is full of fun and surprises as we have a full view of the apartment living at 3 Maple Street. With all the animal friends comings and goings, your child will notice something different each time they read. The bee flying by the window. The wolf by the front door and so much more! This will be a favorite!

A special thank you to Kids Can Press and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

Your House, My House is a very cute children’s story. It is Little Rabbit’s birthday. Your House, My House goes through the day from getting ready for the party to going to bed. What all of the neighbors are doing throughout the day is illustrated on every page. I found this unique and really enjoyed this. The illustrations are great.

Thank you NetGalley and Kids Can Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.