Book Review - 'Julia's House for Lost Creatures' by Ben Hatke

'Julia's House for Lost Creatures' is a sweet and simple little children's fantasy picture book, that is perhaps more complex than it appears.

It may perhaps incorporate issues such as: loneliness, as you move from place to place, and keep meeting new people, throughout your life; not to mention how so many different people living together - who have been made homeless and have nowhere else to go - can contribute to certain housekeeping tasks and chores, and earn their keep. All for a sustainable, clean, tidy, warm, happy home and environment for everyone. Adaptability, change, pragmatism, using your strengths, working together and asking for help are good things. Life isn't so empty and hollow if you care enough to work together selflessly on what needs to be done, and to get along.

Or it could be that it really is just a book about a girl who lives in a moving house on a giant tortoise, who invites lost and homeless patched up kitties, trolls, folletti (specifically gnome-like people), goblins, dragons, ghosts, giant snails, mermaids, fairies, Pokémon designs, crows, ducks, clockwork people, and other Miyazaki creatures to live with her. Everything works out through a plan and hard work.

Julia is adorable. She is such a smart, pragmatic and caring person. She loves reading, listening to music, and making signs. While there is no chore and task she cannot complete, she enjoys the cosy life, if not always the quiet and loneliness. She is reliable in sorting out a problem, and is great at being in charge.

But I wonder, who is Julia? Where did she come from? How old is she? She looks very young to be living on her own to begin with. Has she always lived in the moving house? Has she always been like a house mother? Does she take care of the giant tortoise as well as the other creatures? Are the lovely pictures and other bric-a-brac in her living room - quaintly representing different historical eras - signs of her past? Her family? Do her beloved record player and vinyl records have anything to do with them? Wait, signs? She makes signs (also a postbox with her name on it) for the outside of her house - are the details inside her house the more subtle signs of her past? Wait, wait, is she a time traveller? A collector? Is Julia really as normal as she appears?

From what I've read of the sequels, it seems that none of these questions will be answered remotely. The other books will be more or less the same as this one. Very ambiguous.

Or am I wrong? Feel free to correct me if I am.

'Julia's House for Lost Creatures' - cute, lovely, cosy and quaint, though it does end sorta abruptly in its short length. It truly is fit to be adapted and expanded into a Miyazaki film.

Final Score: 4/5