Open House

This is a great book with a lot of interesting details and wonderful illustrations. My son loves all the hidden flaps. A couple of the flaps tore easily due to small hinge areas in the design (less one star) but I highly recommend this book anyway.

Another beautiful production from English publisher Dorling Kindersley, "Open House" features sumptuous, action-packed illustrations, a pithy text, and more than 90 durable flaps revealing the interiors of eight different historical structures: A Roman sidewalk and upstairs house, its 19th century American West counterpart, a 15th Century Scottish tower, an 18th century "Country Mansion" (in the Roman style), a 19th century French farmhouse, a mid-nineteenth century Japanese home, and (from the 17th century) a French farmhouse and a Dutch home. Three of the eight illustrations are two-page spreads, including the tall Scottish tower.Daily life is described briefly, and the flaps open to show more detail about the various occupants and their use of each building. Open one of the tower flaps, for example, and you see the Scottish lord's servants and soldiers eating in the great hall, and read that meals were "served on a slice of stale bread, instead of a plate." Peer inside the French farmhouse to view a boy lifting a heavy sack of grain, or find the patchwork quilt in the house above the Old West general store. The slim book provides a snapshot of both the delights and the hardships of life in earlier times. This is an excellent book to explore for fans of flaps, history, architecture, and culture.

This is a terrific book. It has so much detail behind each "lift-the-flap" that each reading shows something missed before. From a "Roman Street" house to a western "American Store" each page is interesting, factual, and entertaining. I have been searching for another book like this for years! My kids' favorite page has always been the "Scottish Tower" from the 1500's that shows the "bathroom facilities"!Enjoy.