Julia’s House for Lost Creatures and The Zoo Box

Posted September 8, 2014 by shooting in Uncategorized / 12 Comments

Julia’s House for Lost Creatures by Ben Hatke


Review by Lauren


Source: review copy; all opinions are my own


Official Summary: When Julia and her walking house come to town, she likes everything
about her new neighborhood except how quiet it is! So Julia puts a sign
up: “Julia’s House for Lost Creatures.” Soon she’s hosting goblins,
mermaids, fairies, and even a dragon. Quiet isn’t a problem anymore for
Julia…but getting her housemates to behave themselves is!

Review: I decided to review both of these picture books at the same time, as they are both from the label First Second books (known mainly for their graphic novels). Julia’s House of Lost Creatures is a cute little story about a young girl named Julia who lives in a house all by herself, yet hates how quiet it can be. Therefore, she puts up a sign to welcome lost creatures to come and stay with her.

Of course, they start to show up and begin to make a nuisance of themselves, so Julia decides to hand out jobs for everyone to do. This allows the house to run more smoothly and everyone is happy.

I like how the book could be used as a tool for getting children to do chores, as the book shows how a house works better when everyone helps each other out. The illustrations are a bit muted, more like colored pencils than paint. I think it worked well though. It kept the book from looking too much like a cartoon or overdone.

The Zoo Box by Ariel Cohn and Aron Nels Steinke


Review by Lauren


Source: review copy; all opinions are my own


Official Summary: When Erika and Patrick’s parents leave them home alone for the night,
they head straight to the attic to explore. When they open a mysterious
box, hundreds of animals come pouring out! Soon the town is awash in
more and more zoo animals, until Erika and Patrick discover that the
tables have been turned… and the animals now run a zoo full of
humans!

Review: The Zoo Box’s look is completely different from Julia’s House of Lost Creatures. Everything is bold and bright, and the drawings definitely resemble a children’s cartoon. I think it works overall for this type of story though, since the book is all about real life animals coming out of a box and Erika and Patrick finding themselves in a world where humans are in the zoo and the animals are the ones going to watch them. It’s fun and fantastical, and I think the illustrations work well for that.

One aspect of the book I was a bit confused on was how the kids were left home alone. The parents are out for the night, which is how the kids find the box in the attic. Their ages aren’t mentioned, but as the daughter is obviously the older child, it seemed strange that she would be old enough to babysit but young enough to wear animal costumes and play with her little brother. It’s a not a huge deal, and most younger kids probably wouldn’t even think about it, but I figured I’d share nonetheless! I know Julia in Julia’s House of Creatures lives alone, but that story reads more like a fairytale than this one, which has more of a real life feel.

Anyway, the overall story is cute, but simple. It does leave the kids a bit nervous to visit the actual zoo at the end of the book though, so if you’re kids are afraid of animals or the zoo, this would definitely not be a good book for them. Other than that, I think children would find it amusing, especially before a trip to a zoo where they can see the real animals close up.

12 responses to “Julia’s House for Lost Creatures and The Zoo Box

  1. The illustrations are super cute and I bet you are right, since this is geared towards younger children they probably wouldn't notice that they were home alone, but then again you never know!

  2. Oh, I think my daughter would love these! She loves animals and other creatures more than anything! I've always been troubled by books in which kids are left alone or allowed to go out alone, so I understand your hesitation.
    Thanks for the reviews!

  3. The first book sounds great! I think the kids being left home in the second book might bother me a little too, but I guess maybe she's like 11 or 12? I don't know, it would be a bit tough to know. Oh well, sometimes we just have to let things go, lol.

  4. LOL Julia reminds me of Pippi somehow 🙂 I really love the sound of that one and it seems like a great read. The Zoo Box seems less magical to me but still it seems interesting. Great reviews 🙂

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