A Home Again

Cute & Inclusive, But Also Odd

So, here's the thing: I like this. I enjoy both the story and artwork. But also, I'm not sure this is a great story for kids.

You see, it depicts a home being depressed when the family that grew up in it moves out. That home breaks down not from age and neglect but intentionally - trying to drive potential buyers, and even the couple who do buy it, away because it's too sad to accept love again. It was damaged so deeply by the family moving that it isn't sure it wants to be a home again.

As an adult, I am capable of recognizing this is just a story. As a child, I'd have probably broken down in a blithering mess of tears and fought every time my family had to move even harder - or thought he house hated us whenever something went wrong. (A lot of the depictions of the house breaking down to scare people away are common things present in poorer neighborhoods, such as loose shingles on the roof and leaking water pipes - things very common in my childhood homes.) I mean, all the stories I read about sentient stuffed animals stuck with me and to this day I feel sick when someone rips the stuffing out of one. Then again, I'm not exactly neurotypical so I don't know... it just struck me as a potentially troublesome thing for parents to have to explain to their children.

That said, the art is beautiful and the story is heartwarming. I also have a lot of appreciation for how more than just a traditional nuclear family is shown - the second family to move into the home is a gay couple who adopt a child. The fact they're never treated as different (other than ‘they aren't the old family') is delightful and this kind of normalization of LGBT+ families is exactly what we need in children's media. So maybe I'm just overthinking everything else.