Homes Beyond Walls: A Poetic Picture Book About Belonging

Homes is a poetic illustrated picture book for children that redefines the meaning of home beyond its physical form. Through minimal, lyrical text and carefully constructed mixed-media illustrations, the book approaches home as an emotional, experiential, and relational place. It speaks of home as shelter, memory, body, movement, absence, and return—inviting readers to reflect on what it truly means to belong.

The narrative begins on the cover with the house-person, a symbolic figure that represents the human body as our first and most fundamental home. From there, a journey unfolds with birds that carry the day, holding the sun like a necklace, introducing the cycle of time, motion, and transition. Throughout the book, a vivid red-fuchsia house appears as a recurring visual anchor, continuously transforming and re-defining itself. It becomes landscape and ship beneath the sea, memory and hope in the hands of refugees, comfort and rest in a sleeping cat, imagination in a child’s treehouse, and finally a shared home for all.

The illustrations are created using mixed techniques—markers, collage, and extensive handmade digital processing—forming a second, parallel narrative that evolves organically from the cover to the final spread. This visual storytelling allows children to explore ideas of scale, from the smallest to the infinite, and to understand home as something fluid and ever-changing.

Homes is a book for children and adults alike. It gently helps young readers understand belonging, empathy, and care, including for those who have lost their homes due to war or displacement. Ultimately, it suggests that home can exist wherever love, connection, and hope are present—even among the stars.