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The House by the Lake
Book Review
It made me feel hooked and the stunning illustrations brought it to life
Review by 8 year old Freddie:
The book The House by the Lake is a wonderful, historical book showing big events in the German timeline. It is about a house and the four different families who escape there from the city to live there over a period of 100 years. It is also a good mix of genres.
It made me feel hooked and the stunning illustrations brought it to life. It is set in Berlin, Germany. This fantastic book is truly great for people eager to learn about World War 2 and the Berlin Wall. I definitely would recommend this book because I think that other children will like it too!
Feedback from Mrs Haynes, Class 3 Teacher at Milecastle Primary School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne:
The book this afternoon is absolutely wonderful! The illustrations are beautiful and it fits perfectly with my lessons as this term we are focussing on illustrators and how pictures can help to tell a story.
We read it together as a class and every child wrote a book review. They all gave it 5 stars and from a teacher’s perspective I can say that it led to so many brilliant discussions about Germany and WW2.
Thank you – it has improved everyone’s confidence in writing and Freddie is thrilled to have his review published on-line.
About the Book
This stunning picture book, beautifully illustrated throughout by Britta Teckentrup, is an adaptation for younger readers of Thomas Harding’s Costa-shortlisted biography The House by the Lake which tells the remarkable and moving true story about a house by a lake in Germany.
On the outskirts of Berlin, a wooden cottage stands on the shore of a lake. Over the course of a century, this little house played host to a loving Jewish family, a renowned Nazi composer, wartime refugees and a Stasi informant; in that time, a world war came and went, and the Berlin Wall was built a stone’s throw from the cottage’s back door.
The narrative is told from an original perspective; the house witnessed happy and not-so-happy times as well as periods of loneliness until it was discovered and rescued by the author.
With words that read like a haunting fairy tale this is a very special and thought-provoking book which will help children to consider Germany’s 20th Century history.
Author
Thomas Harding
Thomas Harding (born 31 August 1968) is a British-American-German non-fiction author, journalist and documentary-maker.He has written for outlets such as The Guardian, Washington Post, and The Sunday Times, and is best known for books like 'Hanns and Rudolf' and 'The House by the Lake'.
Illustrator
Britta Teckentrup
Britta Teckentrup (born 1969 in Hamburg) is a German artist, children’s book author and illustrator known for her richly textured collage artwork. She studied illustration and fine art at Central Saint Martin’s College and the Royal College of Art in London.
Since 1993 she has written and illustrated more than a hundred picture books, published in over twenty countries, and now lives in Berlin.
Reviewer Profile
Freddie, 8
- Reviews: 3
- Likes: Writing, anything creative and dancing
- Dislikes: Snakes and ghosts
- Favourite Book: The Truth Pixie by Matt Haig
- Favourite Film: Descendants 3
- Favourite Song: Chandelier by Sia
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