Your House, My House

Your House, My House shows a cross section view of one day in the life of an apartment building, with the storyline focusing mostly on a family of rabbits. It’s Little Rabbit’s birthday, so his mother fixes his favorite breakfast, and the family prepares for his birthday party. Little Rabbit makes and delivers invitations, Papa Rabbit works on decorations, and Little Rabbit and his sister, Lily, help make the birthday cake (which ends up burned and being remade by Mama Rabbit). Meanwhile, Little Fox comes over early because his parents are off to the hospital to welcome his baby sister, and Mama and Papa Rabbit help the Cat family move into an upstairs apartment. Little Rabbit has a wonderful birthday party with friends from the building and ends the night by dropping off some cake to Mr. Bear, who has spent the day sick in his apartment. The subtle last line (“What a day it has been for everyone!”) alludes to the various storylines in the illustrations—readers should anticipate multiple slow read-throughs to match all the delightful details in the storyline with the busy illustrations. And not only does each apartment-dwelling family have a story to tell, but other characters (including a bird family, a monster in the attic, Goldilocks, and Little Red Riding Hood) add to this multiperspective tale intertwining lives and events of varying significance, from day-to-day occurrences to moving and having a baby. Dubuc impressively weaves together snippets of the families’ lives through text and expounds upon them in the illustrations, creating an eye-opening commentary on the complexity of life, neighbors, and community.