The House of Four Seasons

By the author of the bestselling picture book Petunia, The House of Four Seasons is a bright and lively family picture book about colors, imagination, and compromise

When Father, Mother, Billy, and Suzy go house hunting in the country, they fall in love with a grand old house nestled among tall weeds and trees. It is in need of repair, and soon a carpenter, mason, and tinsmith come to set things straight, but it needs painting too. The family agrees it would be more fun to paint the house themselves, but no one can agree on the color, and to make matters worse, the hardware store only carries three colors: red, blue, and yellow. But Father has an idea. “You’ll see, he says, “colors can do many tricks when they get together,” and with a sudden flourish, a color wheel appears! Budding artists and engineers will love this surprising story, and adults would do well to note how Father arrives at a winning trifecta of negotiation, education, and thrift.

Roger Duvoisin (1900-1980) was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and graduated from the École des Arts et Métiers and the École des Beaux-Arts. In the late 1920s, he immigrated to the United States, where he soon began writing and illustrating children’s books. The author of more than forty of his own books, Duvoisin also collaborated with many writers, including his wife, Louise Fatio Duvoisin, and Alvin Tresselt, with whom he won a Caldescott Medal for White Snow, Bright Snow in 1948 and the Caldecott Honor Award for Hide and Seek Fog in 1966.