Not Inside This House!

by Kevin Lewis

Orchard Books, $16.99, 32 pages

Not Inside This House! by Kevin Lewis, illustrated by David Ercolini is the story of a little boy who loves the creatures of the earth. He brings home a bug, but mom tells him he can’t keep a bug in the house … to shorten the story, he brings in one creature after another, each one larger than the previous, until he works his way up to an elephant borrowed from the zoo. Of course, each time his mother tells him Not Inside This House!

I won’t spoil the ending for you, but it’s quite funny and smart. In this very funny children’s book, it’s the mother that learns a lesson taught by the child. The story is well done, and the art is fun and colorful; parents and children alike will enjoy this one, probably time and time again, as children tend to do with their favorites. Not Inside This House! is a five star book.

Reviewed by David Broughton