I Built a Cabin

In I Built a Cabin, a young girl describes her surroundings from the vantage point of a cozy cabin she built at the edge of a forest filled with intriguing and strange animal sounds. The setting is so quiet and peaceful – and different from a city – that she could hear a porcupine chewing its food. Suddenly, even this seems too loud! Listening to their incessant chatter, she invites her animal neighbours to lunch. She continues to be watchful during the night and is astounded at all the activity about her, eventually encouraging the night prowling creatures to come in for a sleepover, hoping their quiet slumber will lull her to sleep as well. The final pages of the book feature short informational paragraphs about each of the animals mentioned in the text, such as the porcupine, osprey and woodpecker.

Although a young girl building her own cabin and living in it alone (along with inviting animals inside) is the work of fantasy, what the author captures so incredibly realistically is the idea that nature is, in fact, noisy. Such accurate depictions of the outdoors can be rare. The repetition used throughout the text mimics the girl’s experience – the audience is lulled into a sleepy mode comparable to our preconceived notions of nature as a quiet and restful place, then suddenly thrust awake by onomatopoeic words such as “knock” or “crack” – as one would be in nature, itself, with the intense and disturbing noises made by the woodpecker, for instance.

The illustrations in I Built a Cabin also add convincingly to the story as the heroine’s expressions convey her astonishment and eventual acceptance that she will not be finding silence in nature any time soon. An impressive array of colours is employed, from multiple shades of green and brown outside, to purples and pinks inside. Gentle and crayon-like shading adds softness and warmth to the page.