The Apartment House on Poppy Hill

I haven’t met a Nina LaCour book I didn’t enjoy, and so when I saw she had an Elouse-comp kids chapter book set in one place, I was intrigued. I love Eloise, I love place-based stories, and I love precocious protagonists.

9-year-old Ella has lived in the Apartment House on Poppy Hill for almost her entire life, sans a few days, so when a new, young couple move on, Ella decides it is her job to make them feel welcome, and to teach them about the intricacies of the building, including the eccentric neighbors, the proper way to light the stove, etc. Of course, Ella’s exuberance is not always greeted with enthusiasm from the newcomers…but they quickly come to realize how indispensable Ella’s knowledge is. I listened to this as an audiobook, so I think it’s technically another “chapter” or “half” of the book that follows Ella’s backstory in engaging with the reclusive couple on the top floor and their ultimate role in providing the flowers for a wedding in the garden, thereby saving the day, even though they are shy.

This is a fun little book. Low stakes, engaging, and Ella would ALMOST be insufferable if it wasn’t true that she really did end up being needed by everyone, and ultimately handling a lot of problems without necessarily causing them herself. The illustrations by Sonia Albert that I saw in the online ARC are perfect for the age. Ella has two moms, and there’s a gay wedding in the garden, and it’s all just kind of how it is, nothing more to say about it. The narrator was great, capturing Ella’s enthusiasm without trying to sound tooooo childlike, which can be annoying, and overall, I thought this was a great little book–only about an hour and a few minutes on audio, and 132 pages in print.

Check it out!