Everyday House

The Everyday Books

by Cynthia Rylant

By award-winning author-illustrator Cynthia Rylant, Everyday House is a charming story about all of the things that make a house and fill up a home.

The Everyday House has a blue front door
and a porch with a wide white swing.
It has red and pink flowers and a small birdhouse
and a bell with a ding-dong ring.

From award-winning author-illustrator Cynthia Rylant comes a charming story about all the special touches that make this Everyday House a home.

Genres: Picture Books

14 pages, Board Book

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Cynthia Rylant is an American author, poet, and librarian whose deeply felt books for children and young adults have made her one of the most beloved voices in contemporary literature. Writing across picture books, novels, short stories, nonfiction, and poetry, she has published more than one hundred works, many of them rooted in memory, family, solitude, and the emotional landscapes of ordinary life. Her fiction often draws from her upbringing in West Virginia and reflects the textures of Appalachian life with unusual tenderness and clarity.

Raised in modest circumstances, Rylant spent much of her childhood with her grandparents in a rural setting that later became central to her imagination as a writer. Those early years, marked by hardship as well as warmth, shaped the emotional honesty and quiet resilience that define her work. She later studied English and library science, and after working as a waitress, librarian, and teacher, she began publishing books inspired by the world she had known so intimately.

Among her most acclaimed works are Missing May, which received the Newbery Medal, and A Fine White Dust, a Newbery Honor Book. She also earned Caldecott Honors for When I Was Young in the Mountains and The Relatives Came. For younger readers, she became especially well known through the enduring Henry and Mudge series, as well as other popular books and series that combine gentleness, humor, and emotional depth.

Rylant's writing is distinguished by its compassion for lonely, searching, or overlooked characters, and by its reverence for animals, nature, and small human connections. Whether writing about grief, wonder, childhood, or belonging, she brings a lyrical simplicity that resonates across generations. Her books continue to offer comfort, recognition, and beauty to readers of all ages. She remains a singular literary presence in children's literature and beyond today.

Reviews

[Bella]

Illustration of this book is made up for photos of paper crafts. Might interest children in remaking their favourite scenes for a fun project.

[Ruth Covington]

Lots to point and talk about in this book and I liked the rhyming scheme.

[Emily Griswold Bunty]

The illustrations are bold and simple; the rhyming and meter of the words are melodic. A perfect little book.

[Angela]

A simple rhyme takes young readers through the features of a typical house. Cut paper illustrations break down the objects into their most basic shapes. I think this would be a great book to use with kids, having them name the various objects on the page and identify their colors. I do have to admit, the picture of the porch swing doesn't work for me; if it weren't for the narration, I probably wouldn't be able to tell what I'm looking at! The book's small size makes it difficult to use for a large storytime group. It would probably work best for one-on-one reading. The closing line "and a family makes it all just right" ties up the book nicely.