THE HOUSE BABA BUILT Book Review

 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Young, Ed. The House Baba Built, An Artist's Childhood in China. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011. ISBN 978-0-316-07628-9

2. PLOT SUMMARY

Ed Young’s illustrated memoir describes his childhood growing up in Shanghai, China during WWII with his family, relatives, and friends. Young’s father, Baba, knew he had to build a sturdy house to endure the perils of war. He made a deal with a landowner to build a brick home with gardens, courtyards, and a swimming pool in which Baba could occupy for 20 years. The house kept the family and extended family and friends safe during the war.

Their lives are not filled with fear but joy as the children continue going to school, playing games, and making origami houses for silkworms, and trading the eggs at school. It was not until near the end of the war, that Young’s family sought shelter in their home’s hallway during the bombings. The end of the war brought Young joy as he dreamed of eating meat again, especially braised pork. The compilation of memories, photographs, maps, and letters is Young’s tribute to his father as he states in the author’s note, “But I hope Baba is in agreement with me that it has all turned out well.”

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

How is it possible for a child to grow up in the midst of war remembering all the joyful times with his family? The author’s foreword sets the tone as he notes the years of happiness four families found while seeking shelter during turbulent war years in the house his father built. He recalls his father saying, “Crisis does carry a blessing within its curse.” Young’s father, Baba, built a house that would fortify families physically but also give them a sense of well-being.

Following a return trip to China in 1990, Young described the memories of Shanghai in a personal journal. Returning again in 2002, he felt that it was essential to record these events for future generations. The accuracy of Young’s childhood recollections is supported by his recognition in the acknowledgements of the contributors that assisted with assembling the WWII research, maps, family photos, and the design of the house’s floor plan. Other informational text features supporting Young’s memoir are the foreword, afterword, and author’s note. The final gatefold page exhibits a timeline and floor plan to exhibit the events of Young’s cheerful childhood. Maps, diagrams, photographs, drawings, and currency enhance the story providing evidence to the reader of the cultural aspects of Young’s life. The family prepares for the New Year grinding the rice flour and painting the door red. Family members, extended family, and friends are identified in the photographs and drawings with single words or phrases.

The pages are thick and sturdy with the illusion of a layering effect of three dimensional images. The caricatures and photographs are completed in multimedia with the use of a collage effect with all of the pages covered with pale, vibrant, and deep colors. The text is set in Franklin Gothic Medium written in random verse across the page vertically or diagonally with single gatefold and double gatefold pages throughout the story. The proof of the house’s strength is depicted in the bombing scene with broad white lines creating light streams and bombers flying over the city. The fold out page shows the family crouched down and the collage effect has them hiding under a section of the city with the print in bright white verse.

The story unfolds in chronological order beginning with the family of four, the addition of another baby, and the continuation of events from 1931 until 1947. Young’s love of his family is apparent as he defines each member with fondness, “Hardy, gentle and stead a true scholar / Fun-loving Fifi, at time a bit sneaky...”. The familial bond with the cousins’ children is depicted as, “Their five children’s ages fit into ours like the fingers of two hands sliding into each other. Baba and their mother thought it would be nice for all ten of us to be friends.”

Young offers us a glimpse of how western culture mingles with his Chinese culture. The day Sonny listened to him and then “…like magic--drew what I had seen”. It was an illustration of a western cowboy. His sister read Treasure Island in English along with Robinson Crusoe, Robin Hood, and The Three Musketeers. Young adored looking at the illustrations as Baba explained them in Chinese.

The home is portrayed as lively but always secure with a repeating reference to his father’s accomplishment of creating the structure using the phrase, “the house Baba built”. Young portrays these resilient, joyful feelings through the actions of the families when they play games, dance and whirl around the rooms, and gather in the hallways during the bombings with Baba telling stories. The war continues but that does not stop the summer fun of capturing crickets and having them battle each other as Young describes it as, “Those battles were the highlight of our summer.” Young’s voice is confident as he states, “I knew nothing could happen to us within those walls in the house Baba built.” His engaging memories will have readers coming back to revisit the pages as it provides a positive perspective of several families’ devotion to each other during a critical point in history when China was under Japanese occupation during WWII.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books Winner 2011

School Library Journal Best Books of the Year Winner 2011

American Library Association Notable Books for Children Winner 2012

“Taking full advantage of the book's large format and many foldout pages, Young juxtaposes drawings, photos, and cut papers to create striking visual and textural effects in collages that suggest both the sharpness and the patchy quality of childhood memories. The text smoothly combines the story's elements, integrating an adult's understanding with a child's experiences. The final pages offer photos of family members, a time line, a diagram of the house, and a note about the book's creation.” From Booklist, September 01, 2011

“The layers of cut paper and collage build, much like the house, which grew to accommodate relatives and refugees. This catalog of childhood pleasures (cricket battles, rooftop roller skating, silkworm hatching) is punctuated by distant bombs, fighter planes, and food rationing. Each scene is a surprise, as Young works in postcards, maps, currency, magazine images, family photographs, and acrylic portraits. Gatefold pages extend the scale.” From School Library Journal, September 01, 2011

“Young's creation, shaped with help from author Libby Koponen, is as complex and labyrinthine as Baba's house, with foldout pages that open to reveal drawings, photos, maps, and memories. Tender portraits of his siblings, torn-paper collages showing tiny figures at play, and old photos of stylish adults intermingle, as if they'd been found forgotten in a drawer. Young's fans will savor stories of his East-West childhood; he and his four siblings raise silkworms, watch Westerns, train fighting crickets, and dance the conga when the war finally ends 14 years later. "Life," Baba writes to his children, "is not rich not real unless you partake life with your fellow man"; Young set the course of his life by his father's words. It's history at its most personal.” From Publishers Weekly, August 15, 2011

5. CONNECTIONS

Explore the Educator’s Guide at http://littlebrownlibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/PR2517_HouseBabaBuilt_EG_.pdf

www.lbschoolandlibrary.com

Educator’s Guide prepared by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, a children’s author and literacy specialist.

Example recommendations from the guide are:

·       Create a double timeline that shows at least ten important historical events on the top. On the bottom timeline, add details about Eddy’s life. Add three illustrations to the timeline. Create a timeline of your own life.

·       Research topics from the book such as growing silkworms or Chinese New Year.

·       Explore vocabulary such as scamper, reprimand, horrified.

·       Stop and jot down five facts about Eddy, his family, or China.

Read and share other selections by Ed Young such as, Lon Po Po, The Emperor and

the Kite, Seven Blind Mice, and Wabi Sabi.

Explore Ed Young’s website at http://edyoungart.com/index.html

Listen to the author, Ed Young introduce and share some of the backstory for creating The House Baba Built: An Artist's Childhood in China at http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=7298&a=1

Explore the WWII Timeline at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at: https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007306

Click on the link to learn more about when Japan invaded China:  https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005155

Resources for more information can be found at: http://www.thehousebababuilt.com/extras.html to include: history.com http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii for an overview of events, a timeline, and an interactive map with videos.

The Library of Congress provides information on veterans from these Asian countries and includes a veteran search database at http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/ex-war-cbi.html

The national archive website on WWII that includes photos and video can be located at http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/index.html