I think every neighborhood has a mystery house of some kind. For a girl and her sister the mystery house is a yellow house. One day they see a boy in the garden. He invites them in to investigate and they find all kinds of exotic animals living there. Children can identify with this book because many have had the experience of wondering about a mystery house in their neighborhood. ( )

The Yellow House is interesting book about imagination. The little girl I babysit for loves this story but I don’t exactly see what’s so great about it. The main character in the story is a little girl and everyday on her way to the park she passes the yellow house that no one lives in. The yellow house has a huge lawn and a little gnome in the front. One day, the little girl decides to climb the gate because a little boy is on the other side and asks her to come play. He has the little girl follow him all around the yard. In the yard a tiger appears, a dolphin is in the pond, and a pelican is on an apple tree. After following him around the yard the boy disappears and the girl goes back to her mom and everything goes back to the way it was. In the illustrations the boy that the girl followed around is dress exactly how the gnome on the front lawn was. I understand the book is a Modern Fantasy book, so nothing in this story is possible without imagination, but I just didn’t like it. The story had no message to me besides that anything can happen with a little imagination. ( )

Originally published in 1987 in Great Britain, this wonderful story celebrates the magical power of imagination. ( )