A Visit to the Big House

by Oliver Butterworth, Susan Avishai (Illustrator)

Rose and Willy are excited, confused, and nervous when their mother takes them to visit their father in prison.

46 pages, Hardcover

First published March 29, 1993

About the author

Butterworth was born in Hartford, Connecticut and spent much of his life as a teacher, teaching at Kent School in Kent, Connecticut from 1937 to 1947 and Junior School in West Hartford, Connecticut from 1947 to 1949. Additionally, beginning in 1947, he taught English at Hartford College for Women in Hartford, Connecticut until the late 1980s.

Butterworth was an author of many children's books, most of which took place in the New England area of the United States in which he was born and raised.

His most popular book was The Enormous Egg, the fanciful story of farmboy Nate Twitchell who raises a dinosaur (a Triceratops named "Uncle Beazley") that hatches from a hen's egg in 1950s New England.

Butterworth died of cancer in West Hartford, aged 75.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about a family whose dad is in prison. It answers a lot of questions about the food eaten in prison and what it is like to visit a parent in prison. It is also how it is going to be hard on the mom., but mostly about the child's side. It also says that the parent is not a bad person, but is paying back his debt to society and hopefully he learned from his mistake.