This Is My Home, This Is My School

by Jonathan Bean (Author)

Reading Level: K − 1st Grade
Drawing from his own childhood experiences, Jonathan Bean takes the autobiographically inspired family he introduced in Building Our House through the special rhythms and routines of a homeschooling day in This is My Home, This is My School. For young Jonathan and his sisters, Mom is the teacher and a whole lot more, and Dad is the best substitute any kid could want. From math, science, and field trips to recess, show-and-tell, and art, a school day with this intrepid, inventive family will seem both completely familiar and totally unique. Includes a selection of family snapshots and a note from the author.
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$19.99

Publishers Weekly

Bean (Big Snow) offers a humorous and informative view of a homeschooling household. The boy who narrates--inspired by Bean himself, as family photos at the end make clear--stands amid a flock of chickens and addresses readers. "This is my home," he says. When the page turns, he's still there. "And this is my school." Bean's scribbly pen-and-ink style is perfectly suited for the liveliness of a home in which the living room is both a place to relax and a classroom, the kitchen is the cafeteria, and the family car is also the school bus. The living room is packed with papers, animals, plants, and furniture; it takes some effort to locate the teacher (his mother) and her pupils (the boy and his sisters). Bean shows the children canning fruit, playing music, and doing field biology in a creek: "We have a lot of classrooms," he explains. Children whose classrooms are heavily regimented and lit with fluorescents will envy the family; it's clear that it's easier to learn in a place that feels like home. Ages 3-6. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. (Oct.)

Copyright 2015 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Starred Review

PreS-Gr 1--In his second semi-autobiographical picture book, Bean introduces young audiences to one family's homeschooling experience. The well-paced narrative draws clear connections between the details of a traditional school environment--with a teacher, a cafeteria, and classrooms--and a homeschool setting--Mom and Dad are the teachers, the kitchen becomes the lunch room, and the house, the yard, the nearby pond, and the garage are all used as classrooms. In Bean's depiction of homeschooling, every moment of the day becomes a chance to learn, from outdoor art classes to evening star-gazing to the "homework" of helping out with farm chores. Watercolor illustrations with loosely defined borders perfectly capture the jumbled chaos of a dual-purpose household, while pen-and-ink lines and plenty of white space provide definition and space for viewers to take in the many details. In this home, towering piles of books, scattered papers, and canning jars share space with butterfly nets, chemistry beakers, and art supplies, reinforcing the family's philosophy that every experience has educational possibilities. The simple sentence structure and vocabulary make this a great choice for emerging readers, and the strong sense of place, anchoring the school experience to a family's beloved home while also opening it up to embrace the wider world, will resonate with young children just beginning to navigate the home/school divide. VERDICT Bean's introduction to a free-spirited yet structured homeschool lifestyle offers a warm and accessible perspective on an increasingly common educational choice rarely seen in children's books. A first purchase.--Chelsea Couillard-Smith, Hennepin County Library, MN

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"This is no ordinary back-to-school tale." —USA Today

"A great choice for emerging readers, and the strong sense of place, anchoring the school experience to a family's beloved home while also opening it up to embrace the wider world, will resonate with young children just beginning to navigate the home/school divide." —School Library Journal, starred review

"Homeschooling families rejoice! This warm, uplifting, and hilarious book will delight kids who wonder if other families live just like they do. My family laughed, nodded, and smiled all the way through—from the first illustration to the last. Sure to become a classic on homeschoolers' bookshelves all over the world." —Sarah Mackenzie, Creator, Read-Aloud Revival and author of Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace

"Warmhearted . . . Capture[s] the coziness as well as the frenetic pace of the homeschooling day." —The Horn Book

"The family from Building Our House returns, but this time their son tells readers all about life as a home-schooled kid . . . Home sweet school." —Kirkus Reviews

"Humorous and informative . . . Bean's scribbly pen-and-ink style is perfectly suited for the liveliness of a home in which the living room is both a place to relax and a classroom, the kitchen is the cafeteria, and the family car is also the school bus." —Publishers Weekly

Jonathan Bean
JONATHAN BEAN received an M.F.A. from New York's School of Visual Arts and now lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A two-time winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, for At Night and Building Our House, he is also the illustrator of Big Snow, two picture books by Lauren Thompson, and Bad Bye, Good Bye by Deborah Underwood.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780374380205
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
Publication date
October 27, 2015
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV035000 - Juvenile Fiction | School & Education
JUV013000 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | General
JUV024000 - Juvenile Fiction | Lifestyles | Country Life
Library of Congress categories
Families
Family life
JUVENILE FICTION / Lifestyles / Country Life
JUVENILE FICTION / Family / General (see also
JUVENILE FICTION / School & Education
Home schooling

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