The Little House

The Little House is a 1942 children’s picture book written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton. Published by Houghton Mifflin, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1943.

Author Virginia Lee Burton has stated that “The Little House was based on our own little house which we moved from the street into a field of daisies with apple trees growing around.” Burton denied it was a critique of urban sprawl, but instead wished to convey the passage of time to younger readers. Being a very visually driven book, many times Burton changed the amount of text to fit the illustration. In her words: “If the page is well drawn and finely designed, the child reader will acquire a sense of good design which will lead to an appreciation of beauty and the development of good taste. Primitive man thought in pictures, not in words, and this visual conception is far more fundamental than its sophisticated translation into verbal modes of thought.”