The House That Lou Built: what makes a home?

 

The House That Lou Built by Mae Respicio is an award-winning, middle-grades chapter book that is great for a book club, read aloud, or independent reading book.  It offers a unique look at the Filipino-American culture while exploring universal themes of grief, family, and friendship for a middle-schooler.

13 year-old Lou is half-Filipina, half-White but she identifies with her Filipina side since she lives with her mother's family in San Francisco.  Her father passed away before she was born and he left her some land as her inheritance.  When Lou visits her plot of land she feels at peace and connected to her father.  When her mother considers moving them away so she can find a better job Lou decides to build a tiny house on her land that she has always dreamed of building. Lolo, her grandpa, tells her, "That's how dreams work.  You just have to do them."  Perhaps this will convince her mother to keep them there?

Lou's community is an important part of the story.  Her mentors, Lolo, Annie, the salvage yard owner and shop teacher, Mr. Keller,  help her with her plans, as have her close friends and family members.  She even makes friends with the ever-popular, Jack, who she encourages to document her project.  Lou is not a typical character because she excels in building and engineering, which makes her stand out amongst her friends and classmates.  Her favorite place to be is the salvage yard because it inspires her to use the parts to invent new machines.  Readers can share a place that inspires them!  She also keeps a running 1,001 Cool Things to Build list and adds items to it, like a catapult.  Readers can add items to the list of something they'd like to build one day.

Lou's identity is an interesting theme that Respicio addresses in the story.  Lou says, "Being half and half is something I don't think about much."  Readers who are split between cultures can compare how they feel to Lou.  When Lou compares her grandparents from both sides of her family she says, "I never knew the difference between my white grandpa and my brown one because they loved me the same." Readers can discuss differences between their family members.  Lou describes her White and Filipina features noting that she doesn't look like her mom but "Mom knows that inside, I'm just as Filipina as she is.  We connect with each other no matter how different we look."  Readers can consider to whom they feel most connected in their lives.  Lou also compares her experiences when eating meals at non-Filipino households.  Readers can share about times when they were exposed to cultures outside of their own.

I enjoyed this story in many ways.   I learned about the Barrio Fiesta and how homes in the Philippines could be moved if flooding were to occur.  Readers can learn about the trials that immigrants endure when moving to the U.S.  I loved Respicio's description of the foods, dancing, and community in the story.  It reminded me of my own Persian community of ex-Pats growing up in Kansas.  

Readers will want to stick with Lou all the way to the end to find out if she ends up building her tiny dream home or if she has to follow her dad's advice she read in his journal, that "sometimes plans change."

Readers can also explore the Tiny House Movement and design their own as an extension idea.  

She has a strong outlook and jumps over the hurdles the adults put in her way.  My favorite line is when she says, "Sure, I'm only 13 but my ideas matter."  When I taught middle school students, this was the feeling that students said frustrated them the most, that they weren't being heard.  Readers can share what is important to them, just like Lou.