Juno has to spend her summer with her grandad as her mother is returning back to work, joining her father in helping people and children in less privileged places of the world rebuild their homes and by extension lives. Juno is having a very hard time understanding how her mother can leave her for such a long period of time and how that doesn't change how much she is loved. But in her grandfather's attic, she finds an old doll house which used to belong to her mother along with and some figurines and furniture and items. Juno decides to build a new one and with her grandfather's help works on restoring what she can, creating her own one. though this process and with grandpa's loving insight and support, Juno is reminded that the importance of having a place to call home is universal and something everyone deserves and should have. And, even though counterintuitive, her mother going away to help other people is her way of showing Juno just how much she loves her, trying to make the world a better place for her to grow up, building one home at a time.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy.

Little House has big concepts about staying for a summer with grandparents, developing an understanding about why certain things happen in families and forgiveness.

Juno finds it daunting and is a bit angst-ridden about staying with her grandfather. His house is creaky and she doesn't like the dark, and yet it is he who is available to take care of her in the holidays whilst her mum is called away to resolve a work disaster. She is also worried about her mum having to go abroad to do this.

In time, Juno settles. She discovers a rather dishevelled dolls house in her grandfather's home and suddenly the two of them have a project on their hands to fix, what was once her mum's toy.

As Juno becomes a "fixer-upper" with the dolls house, her mum in some sense is one too as she tries to aid people who are refugees due to war, rebuild their lives.

Little House is a big themed book that is compelling and thought-provoking with a bit of fun, written in a way that children can get caught up in the adventure of it all and understand what they are reading.

When Juno has to spend the summer with her grandfather while her mother is away helping in a disaster zone, she is resentful of being left behind. But when she discovers a hand made dolls' house in need of some love and attention, she comes to realise the importance of helping others.

This was a lovely novella, suitable for upper keys stage 2.

Another great book from Katya Balen, dealing with uncomfortable emotions & thoughts as seen through the eyes of children. As an ELSA & Nurture Practitioner I love reading books from these perspectives, they make you consider issues from a reverse viewpoint when talking through children’s emotions & experiences. Can’t wait for the next one.

We’re all abuzz about this author in our reviewer community!! From her recent ‘Foxlight’ to her forthcoming ‘Ghostlines’, it’s MG read heaven. However, I must say, I’m perhaps MORE partial to her novella stories, which are published by dyslexia-friendly format pariahs, Barrington Stoke. Katya’s writing evokes melancholy, angst, time standing still, processing a moment/experience, and always a love of nature, a love of equality and togetherness. It’s her innate power to achieve this journey from emotional starvation to feeling full and satisfied through stories like her duology ‘Birdsong’ and ‘Nightjar’ that meant that there was no way I was going to miss out on ‘The Little House’, and I hope that Katya continues to write novellas or even short stories for years to come. Each of these books have been illustrated by the incredible Richard Johnson with so much obvious care and detail that from just staring at the front cover artwork of these Barrington Stoke books the potential the voyeur feels almost sucked into the dreamlike situation of a story that will be punchy, raw, soul-searching, observant of a ‘growing-up’ moment, and unputdownable.

It’s the Summer holidays, and the story begins with Juno being dropped off at her Grandpa’s house while her mum leaves to undertake some urgent emergency disaster relief work abroad. Juno finds it daunting to stay away from her mum, dropped off at night time, eerie house in the dark doesn’t bode well. Knowing her mum is heading off to a dangerous situation fills Juno with fear, and although her dad has been doing this as long as she can remember, it’s the first time since mum had Juno that she’s been able to get back to her passion job. Juno she discovered an old dolls house with all sorts of furniture, accessories and dolls, once lovingly played with and cared for… but now rather damaged and worn, needs a new spark of joy (just like JUNO!!). Together with her Grandpa in his shed workshop they relax into each other’s company and set about reviving the dolls and aged interiors of the house, a house that unbeknownst to Juno used to belong to her mum - a project that she undertook to process her grief at loosing her own mum. Just as Juno’s mum now rebuilds lives through her work, providing homes and hope to refugees and victims of wars or disasters, Juno is rebuilding her mum’s dolls house, learning about caring for the little broken family she found in the attic, finding empathy for her mum’s calling.

This is a moving, compelling read, emotive, and unless you have a child who would naturally pick a book to read like this, then I have to say it’d make a very powerful class read or book club story, particularly if you are looking at topics around war, refugees, migration, or the impact of natural disasters, or even if you are learning about different jobs that adults have an the impact that can have on home life.

“It’s not enough to give people just enough. You have to give them hope. You have to give them a home. You have to make the feel like there is still beauty in the world. To make them feel that life can still be beautiful.” - Juno

I thought this was a gorgeous little children's story, and beautifully written. In fact, it actually brought tears to my eyes. I loved the way that Juno narrated and expressed herself to the reader, expressing all her thoughts and feelings, in particular, her feelings towards everything that she appreciated. I think that children have wonderful imaginations and express themselves in a way that's unique to them, and that's very endearing. The writing had a wonderful childlike simplicity about it. Juno's narration made me feel nostalgic, and I thought about what it is to be a child, to play, and to have a child's imagination. The bond between Juno and her grandpa warmed my heart, and the story had some moral messages that resonated with me. I can imagine that my younger self would have delighted in reading this, and I think it's a beautiful book to read to or with children.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

'Little House' is another perfect novella for older primary readers by Katya Balen for Barrington Stoke, this time describing a child's feelings of resentment towards her mother for abandoning her to go and help those in need as an overseas worker, and how these emotions are transformed by the discovery of an old doll's house in her grandfather's attic which she lovingly rebuilds.

Balen's writing is full of beautiful, tender descriptions. Juno's emotions are depicted with great honesty, which makes her healing through the act of making something new all the more moving. This is a deceptively simple story that unfolds in just 80 pages and is designed to be accessible to all readers, but it is packed with wisdom and insight. Richard Johnson's illustrations also perfectly match the tenderness of this story.

This is another great addition to the Barrington Stoke catalogue which deserves a place in every primary school classroom. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an ARC to review.

A disgruntled Juno is left in the care of her grandfather whilst her mother returns to her charitable work overseas. Juno feels abandoned and resentful, although a chance discovery in her grandfather’s attic not only leads to learning new skills, but also helps her to understand the importance of nurture and to appreciate what she has.

Katya Balen’s rich and engaging writing makes for a truly immersive story and an ideal short class read.

This is a stunning short read which is perfect for a child to read alone or for an adult and child to share together. It is filled with warmth, heart, empathy and would be a fantastic tool for helping children to understand more about the hows and whys of the world. The dolls house and everything it stands for really resonated with me and I can see how this would be such a powerful book in school.

Thanks to NetGalley and Barrington Stoke for agreeing an ecopy but thanks also to Poppy at Barrington Stoke for the early physical copy of this book.
I simply adore Katya's books so the fact that she is also writing for Barrington Stoke makes me so happy as it means those with lower reading resilience can also enjoy her stories (although I go on about Barrington Stoke stories so much at school everyone reads them!)

Little House is just so good.

Juno has to stay at her Grandpa's house over the summer, because Mum is going to go with Dad to look after other children in another country instead of looking after her. It is what she did before Juno was born, but not any more, it's not fair...or at Juno doesn't think so. Her Mum tries to explain she needs to give somewhere a place to live and some hope, but Juno doesn't understand.
Juno's Grandpa has a big house near some woods, she doesn't normally go to his house. He visits them and goes home again, but now she has to stay here. Grandpa likes to cook; eggs for breakfast, cakes, lunches and dinners. And they're often spicy! He works in his carpentry workshop while she is exploring.

In the attic she finds two boxes, one is very wet. Inside it there is a little house but the dripping pipe that made the box wet has made the little house wet too. There is some furniture inside the house but again the pieces are damaged by the water. Juno tries to pull it away from the pipe and the house falls apart. She is upset.
When she looks in the next box, she sees them a little family all wrapped up in plastic and so protected from the dripping water. Juno inspects the family, but now they have no home...
Can Juno begin to understand why Mum and Dad do what they do?

The empathy and love for others in this book are in abundance. Juno is loved by all her family. But they feel a need to help others too, showing great empathy.

In a Nutshell: A bittersweet middle-grade novella about a little girl who understands the importance of home and family and how it is sometimes accompanied by sacrifice. Beautiful writing and great emotions, but slower pace. Might work better as a discussion read than as an individual experience.

Plot Preview:
Ten-year-old Juno is very upset after her mother leaves her with her grandfather for the entire summer while her parents are off doing volunteer work in some other country. Juno thinks it is very unfair that her parents care more for other kids than for their own daughter.
When Juno discovers an abandoned doll house in her grandpa’s attic, she sees how beautiful it might once have been, and how lonely its little doll family looks. So she decides to make a new home for them, and in the process, learns some important lessons.
The story comes to us in Juno’s first person perspective.

This is my fourth book by Katya Balen, and while it is not going to be my favourite of her works, it is still impressive.

Juno and her grandfather are the two main characters in the book. While Juno was a sweet child, a lot of her initial arc is spent missing her mother and being annoyed at having to spend summer away from the city. And as we hear the story from her first person perspective, the proceedings, especially at the start, are somewhat slow and melancholy. The final quarter salvages the mood and the impact.

Juno’s grandfather was the star of the story in my eyes. I love how the book chose to have a grandfather, instead of the more common grandmother, playing the role of the understanding adult. Fictional grandfathers rarely break the mould. But Juno’s grandpa is not just an expert woodworker but also a great chef, experimenting with cuisines from around the world. He encourages his granddaughter in both the activities – woodworking as well as cooking – without once bringing gender roles into play. He is patient and loving, a good listener and a wise counsel-provider. We need more grandfathers like him, in fiction as well as in real life.

Balen is excellent at writing descriptions and emotions, and this book is no exception. The little doll house is detailed wonderfully, as is Grandpa’s woodworking. Juno’s feelings, torn between her love for her parents and her resentment at being ‘abandoned’, are nicely written. The metaphor between her situation and that of the abandoned doll family comes out well.

That said, I am not sure if kids will get the point of the book correctly. If read at a superficial level, the book might lead them to assume that their happiness is worth less in comparison with the greater good or humanitarian purposes. Charity always begins at home, so it is important for kids to realise that Juno’s mother left her in the safe hands of her grandfather before leaving for her volunteer work. This is why I feel like the book will work better as a discussion read, so just in case any child misinterprets the message, an adult will hopefully be able to guide them back to the right track.

There are grayscale illustrations throughout the book, in the same style as that on the cover – somewhat hazy and without defined edges. While the art style wasn’t my cup of tea, it works for the story.

Basically, this is a sweet tale but not typical of its genre. It covers a wider spectrum of emotions than a usual MG work does, including some complex feelings. But the message it puts forward is a subtle but thought-provoking one.

As with all Barrington Stoke publications, this book is written in HiLo style, which means that the target age of the story is 9+ years but the reading level is age 8. So the content is accessible to a greater group of little readers.

Recommended for sure, as this is a great combo of plot plus moral plus discussion points. We can all do with a little help and a little hope, and this book provides both amply.

4 stars.

My thanks to Barrington Stoke and NetGalley for the DRC of “Little House”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A new book from Katya Balen is always great news!

Juno's tender hearted story is filled with the perfectly poetic prose Katya Balen writes so beautifully. Packed full of heart and wisdom.



Emma Perry

As with all Balen's novels, this is a beautiful gentle story which explores grief and abandonment and hope. There's a lovely burgeoning relationship too between the main character and her grandfather as Juno comes to terms her mum going away.

Juno is furious when her mum leaves her with her grandfather for the summer to go and help those in desperate need. Now Juno will miss a whole summer with her friends and it's all her mum's fault for choosing to leave.

But when Juno finds an old doll's house in the attic and decides to restore it, she begins to understand the reasons behind her mum's decisions. Can she find a way to forgive her?

This is a small novella which poses big questions. Is Juno or her mum the selfish one? Written with a huge amount of heart and hope, Katya Balen doesn't shy away from emotional issues, allowing her characters to rage, reflect and restore their sense of hope.

I loved the pure simplicity of this story, which is captured perfectly in the front cover by Richard Johnson. Aside from the big issues, Katya Balen writes about the everyday in such a unique and fascinating way - with incredible language and a soothing lyrical rhythm. We would absolutely recommend all her of previous novels and novellas.

Little House is a lovely read. A perfect addition to my classroom collection of short form novels. In 88 pages, which aren’t dense with text, and are accessible to children with lower reading ages, Katya Balen tells a whole story, presents believable characters, who you care about and shows life lessons and growth.

Juno is plucked out of her normal life and dispatched to her grandpa’s house one night to allow her parents to go to a non-specified area of the world to help with disaster relief.
Juno goes through a meditative journey, through creation; interaction with her family’s past and present; and she comes to terms with her abandonment, ultimately understanding her parents’ calling to help others.

Grandpa has the perfect nature to allow Juno’s growth. I really enjoyed the depiction of a man of a certain age being emotionally available and capable: Grandpa is gentle and calm and instinctively reacts to his grand-daughter. He can cook well- cuisines from across the world too. He’s an artisan. He’s not a curmudgeonly cut-out of a grandfather like we often see. Also, my reading of Grandpa involved a Geordie accent- it’s the way he punctuates everything with ‘Pet’ (I might suffer from the same vocal habit) and I imagined Juno being dropped off in the high reaches of Northumberland in the dark sky area as her mum sped off to join her dad.

Little House will join Birdsong and Nightjar on my shelves little novels full of heart.

Thanks to Barrington Stoke via NetGalley for an advanced read of this novella. Its publication date is 14th March ‘24.

Ten year old Juno is dumped in her grandfather's while her mother goes off on a mission to a disaster zone to help other families. Juno understandably is not happy to leave her home, her family, or be without her mother. Her father already is regularly away on similar trips, and she feels hurt and neglected now her mother has gone too. While at Grandpa's, she finds an old and badly damaged dolls house in the attic. When she finds the family of dolls that used to live in it, she feels compelled to help them. Can she with Grandpa's help make them a new home filled not just with the necessities but with love and beauty too?

The story is beautifully written (although I felt it made Juno sound older than ten). I really liked Juno's relationship with her grandfather and how they made a dolls house together. However I found the story quite preachy. The message I took from it was that your responsibility to your children is no greater than to other children and therefore if other children need help more, it's all right to sacrifice your child for that cause. It's not a message I agree with, so this story didn't work for me.

Little House is another winner from Katya and Barrington Stoke. The language is almost poetic as always; the story is thought-provoking and will prompt discussion about the meaning of home. Full of compassion and empathy, it is a short read that really packs a punch - at times heart-breaking but finally reassuring - with beautiful illustrations by Richard Johnson.

Juno is angry at her mum. She has gone away and left Juno with her grandfather for the summer. There is nothing exactly wrong with her grandfather. He is kind and patient and a good cook, but Juno had plans with her friends for the holidays and mum has gone and spoilt everything.

At ten, her mum believes she old enough to be left behind, so she can pursue what she loves to do - help people. But Juno can only see the gap that her mum has left. It was always dad who went away to foreign countries to work with refugees and displaced people, not mum.

But mum yearns to be back alongside dad, doing what they did together before Juno was born. Juno feels betrayed, and feels that mum cares more for the children she doesn't even know, than Juno herself.

Grandad tries to help, but lets Juno work through her feelings in her own time. She begins to explore her grandfather's huge house, and finds a crumbling dollhouse in an attic. At first she believes it's not worth doing anything with, but when she discovers a tiny doll family, she knows she wants to fix the house.

Together, Juno and her grandfather do so much more, and Juno begins to slowly understand how her mum feels and why she had to leave.


Katya Balen's delightful style of writing shines again in this novel perfect for reluctant readers, with it's short chapters, beautiful illustrations by Richard Johnson, and a topic we can all relate to.

Not only is it personally relatable, Little House illuminates what is happening in the world today, with so many displaced and needing kind strangers and professionals like Juno's parent's help.

Stories like this can help make sense of the world to children who might see images or headlines about disruptions and conflicts abroad. Empathy flows from this story, from Juno's mum, her kind grandfather, and then Juno herself - wanting to house a long forgotten family.

Little House
By Katya Balen & illustrated by Richard Johnson
Published by Barrington Stoke

Another charming story complemented with beautiful pictures exploring how a home makes you feel.

Juno is furious when she is sent to stay with her grandfather for the summer.
She’ll miss her friends and all their plans for the holidays.
But more than that she will miss her mum!
But it is her mum’s decision to work away, just like her dad and that hurts.
Juno feels lost, alone and betrayed.
Then the discovery of an old, long-forgotten little family in her grandfather’s attic helps Juno to focus and see things differently.
The ability to craft a new home for the dolls helps her to forgive her mum and her decision.

This charming story runs alongside the tenderness of play and the feelings surrounding how a home makes you feel: togetherness, belonging, strength and love.

Katya captures the essence of thinking and caring for others when disaster strikes.

Joanne Bardgett - teacher of littlies, lover of Children’s literature.
#Netgalley

Lovely story for kids, showing the importance of helping others in need, and how much bigger the world is than a child may think. And the illustrations were beautiful.

Great message for all young children and beautiful imagery throughout. Suitable for 8 years old and up. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this arc.

Katya Balen has done it again with an honest and oh so powerful story of family, personal growth and challenging world issues. Little House is a beautiful shorter read with all the accessibility features Barrington Stoke has to offer combined with Katya Balen’s distinct style. Written in first person, there is unmistakable character voice and a point of view that fills readers with emotion as they journey with Juno through her growing empathy and understanding.

Ever since Juno was born, her mum has been staying at home to look after her rather than travelling to disaster-stricken countries to help families in need. Now, Mum feels compelled to join Dad on a trip to help children who have lost their homes. Juno knows these children need her mum but she can’t help but feel abandoned – she needs Mum too and wants her to stay home.

Sent to stay with her grandfather for the summer, Juno resents that fact that all her plans with her friends have been spoiled and her familiy feels broken. She wished she didn’t have parents who “dart around the world when it starts to tear apart at the seams.” Earthquakes, wars, floods and famines – they’re leaving her to save someone else’s children.

While at her grandfather’s house, Juno comes across an old, broken doll house in the attic and the family of dolls who once lived there. Realising the house is beyond repair, Juno joins Grandpa in his workshop where he helps her build a new one. Through this process, Juno comes to realise the difference between a house and a home. She realises the importance of her parents’ work and how much other children really do need them.

Little House is a wonderful catalyst for discussions about disasters in our world and how we can help. Through the simple image of the doll house, readers will come to understand the importance of home just like Juno and gain insight into how much they take for granted. There is so much to discuss with children after reading this book. It is written in such a way that allows adults to approach the issues sensitively and at an appropriate level. Little House would also likely to be suitable for classmates who have had to leave countries of war and seek refuge in the UK.

Thank you to Barrington Stoke and NetGalley UK for an early read of this emapthy-building book!