The note has a tinge of hope, though I found it sobering, although not as depressing as the story itself. Her books would be good adjunct material to lessons on ecology and sustainability. There is an author’s note at the end, even though this story is fictional, about how wilderness is disappearing and how humans are impacting the planet. However, overall, the collage illustrations are outstanding. Not quite sure what the boy was aiming at with the slingshot but I didn’t much like that picture. As with Home, Bake uses specific age birthday cards and other objects and kids’ growth with which to show the passage of years. This is the almost wordless story of a boy growing up in the country that becomes a much more populated area, has a baby of his own, back in another area that’s undeveloped, yet with development slated to soon start. I am a city person but the humans overrunning these two landscapes I did not find appealing. I just finished reading Baker’s book Home which I found uplifting. The illustrations are intricate and interesting. When the boy grows up and has a baby of his own he moves away to an ideal spot of unspoilt beauty and you can tell what you're meant to think happens next.Ī pity, 'Belonging' was lovely but this felt like being sledgehammered with a message and then hit again once you'd got up. Decay in the garden accompanies a missile hung from the window, a boy aiming a catapult, mac Donald's packets on the windowsill. I found the book very negative, within 16 years this isolated house in the country has had a city spring up around it complete with airport, even the mountains disappear. Like 'Belonging' this window scene shows small details to mark the passing of the baby's years. The story starts with a mother and baby looking at a countryside close to utopia, mountains and trees, nothing else.

Perhaps it was reading the authors note about ecological damage after reading in her last book how she collected sponges for her collage that made this seem a like an example of practise what you preach, but where I found 'Belonging' subtle and touching I found this frustrating. After really enjoying 'Belonging' I expected to love 'Window' just as much.

The window book jeannie baker