Everybody’s Welcome is a wonderful story about empathising with the plight of others and helping them in their hour of need. This beautifully illustrated picture book has a main character, Mouse, who shows compassion, kindness and tolerance towards many different woodland animals and recognises that they can all add individual expertise and strengths to a project which will ultimately benefit them all.
The Story: Little Mouse dreams of building a big house in the forest. One by one various animals, who for one reason or another have lost their homes, appear and Mouse welcomes them to join her in building a house where ‘everybody in it will feel that they belong.’
‘Everybody’s Welcome’ in Mouse’s house and the animals strengths are celebrated and utilised so that they can work together to build a house for everybody. Mouse is joined by a large bear, a frog, rabbits and birds and as word spreads many more animals come to lend a hand and work together.
The bouncy rhyming text is easy to read and we love Greg Abbott’s illustrations. The earthy, muted tones are perfect for the story’s woodland setting and there is so much detail in the illustrations. Half pages and cutouts show the progress of the housebuilding on one side of the page while more and more animals arrive to lend a hand. The animals are enthusiastic and industrious and their teamwork is rewarded when the house is finished and a Home Sweet Home plaque is nailed onto the wall. My daughter loves the picture showing all the animals working together as they sand, hammer and screw nails into wood, many have brought their own tools, even a tiny beetle has contributed by bringing a nail! I have a soft spot for the unhappy frog who meets Mouse at the beginning of the story but has a very wide grin by the end.
Everyone’s Welcome would be a lovely story to use in a reception class for a Homes and Houses topic. It can stimulate discussion about children’s own homes, what their dream home would be like and also lead to discussion about different types of animal homes. It would also fit into a woodland topic, there are a range of different woodland animals and birds in the story, an owl, a hedgehog, a fox and a squirrel also join the main characters to build the house.
Age Range: 3 +
Author: Patricia Hegarty / Illustrator: Greg Abbott
by Patricia Hegarty [CATERPILLAR]
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$16.20
Thank you to Little Tiger Press for sending us a copy of Everybody’s Welcome. It’s the perfect story to demonstrate empathy and the diversity of the characters shows children that by working together we can achieve so much more than when we work alone.
Lovely post – we are always on the lookout for books that build character 🙂 #mmbc
That’s a great description of this book – character building 🙂
This sounds like a lovely book with a really nice message. I will look out for it! #MMBC
It’s a wonderful message to give to children. Whatever our differences we can all work together 🙂
What a beautiful sounding story! My daughter would really enjoy this #TriedTested
It is lovely and the illustrations are beautiful 🙂
I have never heard of this title so shall keep my eyes peeled. I really like the illustrations really pleasing to my eye X #triedtested
Everybody’s Welcome is newly published, the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous 🙂
What beautiful animal illustrations. Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested
The illustrations are gorgeous! I love the earthy colours that Greg Abbott uses 🙂
I love the sound of this one, a great one for younger children to learn a thing or two. Thanks for sharing with #readwithme
This is definitely a picture book that can be appreciated by adults as well as children. Greg’s artwork is stunning!
It sounds lovely, with some really positive messages. I would have liked to see some of the illustrations from the inside of the book, although I think I did a pretty good job of imagining them!
You can see more of Greg’s illustrations here: http://gregabbott.tumblr.com
Thanks for sharing your review on #TriedTested this week x
You’re welcome Colette 🙂
I can see this being very useful in the run up to and during September when my eldest starts school. Any other books you would recommend to help with this?
This is a blogpost about starting school picture books that I wrote – https://storysnug.com/2016/05/picture-books-first-day-of-school/
These two posts include starting school books recommended by other book bloggers – https://storysnug.com/2014/07/starting-school-picture-books/ and https://storysnug.com/2014/08/starting-school-part-two/
That’s so helpful. Thank you.
You’re welcome!
I just adored this book. Beautiful in artwork and in language and in sentiment. A perfect combination! #readwithme
It’s definitely the kind of book where you just want to stroke the pages 🙂
Great review. This sounds a fantastic book.
#readwithme
Thanks Suzanne. It’s a beautiful book 🙂
What a pleasant book. Anything that encourages little ones to help and support others is a winner for me 🙂
Thanks for sharing with #MMBC. Have a lovely weekend and hopefully see you Monday x
It takes a beautiful look at caring for and looking after others 🙂
This sounds like a wonderful book, I love the illustrations. As always, you’ve thought of some excellent ideas for using this book in the classroom 🙂
#readwithme
Houses and Homes is one of my favourite topics for a reception classroom 🙂