Kids into Books: House of Huxtable

Author: Joy Lowe

Illustrator: Brent Putze

Publisher: Mallinson Rendel, $15.95

Age group: 8-11 years


The house still felt indignant about that. I am a home it thought, or I was a home. A house really needs people to qualify as a home. The house stretched its timbers and sighed.

A battered, red van stopped at the broken-down gate. Its rear doors burst open and four children scrambled like puppies on to the grass verge. The front doors opened more sedately, to allow a youngish woman and an old man to emerge. The house stirred and watched.

Quinn felt cheated. The house looked so ... well, old and dilapidated. grandad had excited them all with his description of the big garden.

Plenty of room for kids to play, he'd said. this place looked as if they'd need a map and compass to avoid getting lost in that jungle. Enough room for a bedroom each, he'd said. That had appealed to Quinn.

She hated sharing with Molly. Her older sister was always boss of the room - and the rest of the house if she had half a chance. But it didn't look as if there was a pane of glass intact in the whole house.