The House That Floated

Delicate chalk and digital renderings by Guojing (The Flamingo) engross in this wordless story about a house precariously perched on the edge of a seaside overhang. Soft-edged panels showcase a growing family’s days as inhabitants of the bright-red home. Muted imagery first depicts a loving couple venturing forth via a rowboat and caringly cutting a dolphin loose from netting. The season shifts, and the couple appear in silhouette, this time revealing a baby bump. Joy emanates from proceeding visuals of a young child exuberantly walking, biking, sledding, swinging, swimming— the landscape routinely proving as much a character as the figures. When the large waves of a storm arrive, seemingly resulting in a permanent sea rise, the threat to the little abode is clear, and the trio, portrayed with pale skin and dark hair, enact an unlikely plan to save their home in the face of forces beyond their control. Though the book’s climax doesn’t fully cohere, recurrent symbols expressively convey narrative shifts, while bird’s-eye views of the house and terrain give the work an epic quality. The result is a resonant portrait of adaptation that’s at once sorrowful and triumphant. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)