The Wonderful House

by J.P. Miller, Margaret Wise Brown

There are so many wonderful houses! There are bird houses and barns, beehives and bunny holes, circus tents and snail shells, tree tops and tortoise shells. But who lives in the most wonderful house of all? Celebrated author Margaret Wise Brown and illustrator J. P. Miller lead us on a colorful journey through land, sea, and air to find out who lives in each house.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Fantasy

24 pages, Board book

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

John Parr Miller, mid-century illustrator. Not to be confused with J.P. Miller the novelist and screenwriter.

Reviews

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is suddenly my three-year-old's favorite book. It starts with a guessing game and ends with a flying house; how could you get any better than that?

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

All the insanity of Alice in Wonderland with none of the charm.

[Robert Foreman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it a hat's house?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guessing game for who lives in which kind of home with a fantasy twist at the end.

[Juushika · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Who lives in this this barn, in this doghouse, who lives in that strange house flying in on wings? The escalation here, from a prosaic, very children's-book-ish list into a more sustained and decidedly quirky narrative, is charming. The dense, vivid art grew on me alongside the narrative, but I wish the final spread were more robust; being airborne means the background is pretty plain, which lacks the oomph of some previous panels when oomph is dearly needed.

Fascinating that the two editions are the same artist/art. Common sense and peering at publishing dates indicate that the longer version is the original: 50 pages versus the 30-page revised edition. The 50-page has many panels missing in the other; the art is arranged and cropped slightly differently in each. Of the the two, I tentatively prefer the 30-page; normally I prefer longer versions of MWB, but here the escalating scale here has more punch in a shorter book. But I like the 50-page as an extended cut.

[Thomasin Propson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A repeated question ("But who lives here?") followed by an inhabitant or the narrator's reply combined with the charming illustrations by J.P. Miller of various living spaces and their inhabitants (some quite silly) makes The Wonderful House a fun read-aloud. The picture are cute and detailed enough to warrant a page-through by older children (and, hey, adults!) as well.

Gotta say, I like the toddler board-book version better than the full-sized edition, mainly because it skips the clown (creepy) with its companion picture of a captured elephant (aka circus elephant).

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is such a shame that this is out of print. It’s one of my children’s favorites. MWB at her best.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narrator asks the reader who s/he thinks lives in different houses, including a magical flying house referred to as "the wonderful house."

[Kaethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems to me that Brown became ubiquitous for two reasons: there just wasn't a lot of competition and everybody loves surrealism. Just now I have reread this book, one I read innumerable times in my childhood, and probably to the Offspring in their youth when they lacked the ability to flee. But it's been, eh, maybe 14 years, and now I'm bugging, because WTF Brown?

We start with a standard children's book format: on each righthand page there's a picture, and beneath it a variation on the question "who lives here? " Turn the page and see the inhabitants. There's children and standard mid-century farm animals and the top several woodland creatures the audience would list on Family Feud. Now it's a cliche but it was still freshish in '58.

And then, in the distance, something unexpected. "But what is that flying through the air?" Who knows? The wheels don't come off, oh no, they suddenly appear in midair. And it just gets weirder. Can you guess? "No! All guesses are wrong."

Seriously, I have no idea what was up with her, but I will cheerfully amuse myself with idle speculation. All of her books have something really off about them, and it worries me a little that her books are still popular. In Goodnight, Moon she gets her repetition wrong. The Runaway Bunny is a nightmare from Kafka with terrifying illustrations. It's all bizarre and inexplicable.

Personal copy

[Luisa Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aww, this is pretty cute and clever! Young beginning-book-lovers will relish this simplistic question and answer book and it's colorful illustrations.

Ages: 2 - 6

Cleanliness: there is a picture with a witch on it.

**Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it! Visit my website: The Book Radar.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tour of several homes, and then a quest to figure out who the unusual flying house belongs to.

I'm sure I read this as a child but I don't remember the mysterious house at the end of this and it seems like the kind of thing I'd have loved as a kid. So maybe I somehow missed it? This would be a good one for prediction exercises as it starts off as the typical "let's see where animals live" and then throws readers for a loop with the unusual house.

[Dug Tzu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think much about this book the first time I read it to my 18-month-old son. His complete obsession with it, however, changed my way of thinking about what appeals to a child (and I'm glad it did).

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course, MWB is my favorite. But my 2 yo daughter loved this book. I may have to buy a copy.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book about animal houses--

[Sarah Herrington · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Margaret Wise Brown, but I wasn't a big fan. Nothing wrong per se, but it just left something to be desired.

[T Crockett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, but the kiddos (preschool) only made it through to the end once out of the 5 or 6 times we started it.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHAT?!

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm... this one didn't really do it for me. It starts out as a "guessing game" kind of story in which the readers are supposed to guess who lives in each dwelling. But then the switch to the fanciful flying house felt strange and abrupt, especially since everything started out so realistic. The illustrations are pleasant, but I wish some of the "houses" had been placed more centrally on the page so we know what exactly we're supposed to be guessing. For instance, on the page with the snail shell, the bird is the biggest object we see, while the snail shell is tucked away into the corner. Wouldn't it make more sense for the snail shell to be front and center? The rhyme scheme is inconsistent as well (some sentences rhyme, some don't, some have internal rhymes, some have end rhymes), which might make this awkward to read aloud. Reading other reviews, I see a lot of people mention that this was a big hit with their young kids. Maybe it's because I'm a grown-up, but I just didn't get it. :)