By Giles Laroche
Houghton Mifflin Harcdourt, $16.99, 32 pages
Have you ever wondered what your house would look like if you lived somewhere else in the world? If you lived in Greece, your house would look exactly like your neighbor’s house with white walls and a blue roof that matched the colors of the ocean. If you lived in a Spanish pueblo, the walls would be made of thick adobe (mud) and ladders would help you climb between floors. Step into homes around the world in Giles Laroche’s If You Lived Here: Houses of the World. Discover the ways people have lived throughout history and why houses were built in a particular way (the snow covered low roofs of the French chalet help trap fireplace heat inside). Every home that is featured has a section describing the materials used, date of construction, location, and other fascinating facts. Each page is filled with Laroche’s intricate illustrations. Bas-relief cut-paper collages represent hours of drawing, cutting, painting, and gluing and readers will delight in studying each piece of artwork. A Venetian palace sits on the waters of the Grand Canal where boats called gondolas take kids back and forth to school. This book is sure to inspire curiosity about other people and places around the world.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Franklin
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