William's House

William's House 
by Ginger Howard
Illustrated by Larry Day

William's House takes place in New England in 1637. William has immigrated from England and is going to build a house for his family. He decides he wants it to be just like his father's house in England. William is happy with the house he built. But after awhile he had to slowly start making changes to his house because the weather is so much different in New England than where his dad lives. Eventually he has made so many changes it does not look like his fathers house any more. When his cousin comes to visit him he asks "What kind of house is this?" and William tells him "This is our new home. Welcome!".

I enjoyed this book. I would recommend reading it 2nd grade to 3rd grade classrooms. I would classify it as historical fiction. It has a good lesson that even though things might not be the same as they were back home they can still be good. You can make your home wherever you choose. It also shows that change can be a good thing. 

There are vocabulary words in this book that most kids would not be familiar with. It would be good to make a list of the potential foreign words and have explanations. This would be a good book to read if you are studying about American history around the 1600's.