The House Across the Street by Jules Feiffer

I just kind of picked this book off the shelf in our school library not knowing what it was about. It looked like a simple book that young kids would enjoy. I was definitely correct in that aspect. The voice in the book is clear and the ideas are simple. A boy dreams about the life that his neighbor lives across the street. The voice is something that I particularly enjoyed. The author did a great job making it sound authentic - like the thoughts were really streaming in the mind of a young boy. They were innocent and imaginative and humorous. From a child's perspective, the book is something that would be fun to read because the house across the street contains a lot of unusual, interesting things.

From a teacher's perspective, that aspect of the book is fun, too. It would be really fun for a first - second or third grade classroom to write stories or draw pictures about the way they imagine their neighbors' houses. However, what is really great about this book is that the teacher can also take it so much farther than that. The narrator in the story dreams so much about the house across the street because it is so much larger than his own house. The house across the street represents a wealth that the narrator has no experience with. His wild imaginations of what lies inside of the house are a testament of how he sees rich people living: everything is perfect and extravagant. A teacher can use this wealth disparity presented in the book to really talk to her students about similar issues. The teacher can really use this to connect her students with the book and to present the idea of class.

I really enjoyed this book. It was so versatile - it can be fun if all you are looking for is a fun read. Or, it can be deep, useful for talking about serious issues that would absolutely come up in a classroom - especially in schools with families from diverse financial backgrounds. Even at a young age, kids notice when they are different from their peers. This book really channeled that idea and put it in a lighthearted, fresh text.