Heartwood Hotel: A True Home by Kallie George and Stephanie Graegin
I’m always on the lookout for great new read-alouds for the 4-6 crowd and Heartwood Hotel is a perfect pick for that age group with four books in the series.
Earlier this year, I asked on Instagram about favorite read-aloud books and there were so many I’d never read (and many I’d never even HEARD of – you can see the whole list here).
One of them was Heartwood Hotel, which came with rave reviews, so I quickly snagged a copy from my library and took it with us on a family vacation.
I knew from previous experience that Ani can get a little overwhelmed from long days with big groups of people, so I thought this would be the perfect way for us to sneak away together and let her little introvert self de-stress a little.
She immediately fell in love with Heartwood Hotel and we read nearly every day while we were on vacation and Star (who is 3.5) ended up listening to lots of it with us too.
The storyline in the first book, A True Home, follows Mona, a tiny mouse who has no family and finds herself alone in the forest in the middle of a big storm.
She stumbles on Heartwood Hotel quite by accident and discovers that it is a hotel for small animals and they agree to take her on during the storm.
But her quick stay turns longer when she is recruited to remain during the busy season as a maid.
She quickly discovers that the hotel is renowned across the forest for its hospitality, amazing food, and all-out festivals and celebrations.
And it’s filled with charming animals who give her the companionship and love she’s never had (aside from Tilly the squirrel, the other maid, who seems to deeply dislike Mona for reasons she can’t comprehend).
But when dangerous animals come lurking near the Heartwood, the home that Mona has come to love, might be threatened.
This book reminded me a little bit of the Redwall books (one of my all-time favorite childhood series), aimed at a younger audience.
Between the nice animals (mice, squirrels, badgers, etc) living in a safe haven and fighting the bad animals, the amazing forest food (acorn soufflé anyone?), and the mice heroine, it had so many similar elements, although the storyline felt very fresh and original.
I also loved that it wasn’t too long (A True Heart clocks in just over 170 pages), and that it had beautiful black-and-white illustrations every few pages.
Other books in the Heartwood Hotel series
The moment we finished, Ani begged to begin the second one, The Greatest Gift.
I noticed, also, that the books follow the seasons, with A True Home taking place in autumn, The Greatest Gift taking place in winter during hibernation season and the holidays, and the third Heartwood Hotel book, Better Together, bringing in spring.
The fourth book, which just came out a few weeks ago, is called Home Again, and it takes place in . . . surprise! Summer.
They’d be perfect to start in the next few weeks as September rolls in and read over the course of the year following the seasons (plus, the paperback copies are each under $6).
Now I have to decide if I wait to read The Greatest Gift until winter really rolls in or if we plow through the whole series right now.
(Hint: it’s almost certain to be the latter).
P.S. After we finished A True Home, I realized that the author, Kallie George, is also the author of a series of illustrated chapter books Ella has loved reading on her own this year, called The Magical Animal Adoption Agency. If you have a child who loves both animals and magic, this series is a sure-fire hit.
books to read if you liked heartwood hotel
Sophie Mouse by Poppy Green
Lighthouse series by Cynthia RylantPandora is all alone in a lighthouse, while Seabold is alone on a boat. That is until the sea does something amazing and puts the two together for some amazing quests. This is an absolutely charming and sweet series.
Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren CastilloHedgehog lives all alone on a tiny island, except he does have his stuffed dog Mutty. Until a huge storm crashes the island and Mutty gets lost. Determined to find her best friend, Hedgehog sets out on a journey and discovers there are more friends on the island she never noticed.
Hotel Flamingo by Alex MilwayAnna inherits a dilapidated hotel from her great aunt and decides to restore it. The thing that makes it special? All the staff and guests are animals! It’s filled with colorful illustrations that bring the story to life.
The Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-el
A sweet and curious polar bear, Duane, befriends an array of arctic animals as he embarks on an adventure to discover where he truly belongs. This is the perfect book for anyone who loves animals and adventure!
Brambly Hedge by Jill BarklemThe mice of Brambly Hedge are as busy as can be. This collection is filled with four much-loved classic stories of how the mice spend each season of the year, with parties, surprises, and fun-filled adventures.
Nuts to You by Lynne Rae PerkinsTwo squirrels set out to rescue their friend who was snatched by a hawk, and boy…what an adventure they will have! Lynne Rae Perkins won the Newbery quite a while ago and this one has illustrations on every other page, so sign me right up.
My daughter loves this series (and the Sophie Mouse series). Will check out the Magical Animal Adoption Agency. A couple other early chapter books that we love are Brambly Hedge and Zoey and Sassafras.
Oh, I’ll check those out! Thank you!
This author also has a fabulous trio of easy readers about a sea monster, dragon, and phoenix (the titles are: Splash, Spark, and Flare) that my 3 year old loves! I can’t wait to check out Heartwood Hotel as well!
Thanks for this recommendation!
Always looking for good bedtime reads for my sensitive 5 year old. He loved Narnia but a few other books we’ve tried have been too scary for him!
A book series we’ve loved, they are shorter chapter books but usually last us at least two or three nights of bedtime reading, haha- are The Lighthouse Family series by Cynthia Rylant. The first one, The Storm is the best one but they are all great little books, beautiful language and adventurous without being too scary.
Oh, I haven’t read those! Thank you so much for the recommendation.
I am sooo thrilled that you spoke about this series! I have spoken of Redwall series sooo much to our library patrons that I am sure anyone who knows me, within earshot, would be saying, “not again…”. My son read and reread that series so much that I actually had to buy the paperbacks also so if they needed to be replaced, they could at a cheaper cost! We live in the Hudson Valley in NY and traveled to Maine to see family, went to a small bookstore in Ogunquit and they recommended that series based on my son reading CS Lewis and some Lord of the Rings (he was an early reader and in Elem School at the time. Well , that was it.
Now, I am trying to find books that I can read online via our Library, for the Summer. I do preschool, toddler and two school aged programs part-time in our city library. I do a Therapy Dog program for kids to come and read with two of our certified dogs each week (14 in the program ). So, I have been doing a small preschool-toddler online storytime and a dog tales (me reading 2 dog related books each week) for the library. It is very hard to get permissions but most are if posted on YouTube or FB, they need to come down by 6-30-20. I am ok with that as we begin summer programs (NO in person all summer…) at the end of June. I will continue both of these original programs BUT want to add another one that is reading longer books to kids…a couple of chapters each week. I so want to do this with this, with this series!! I have to check permissions but feel this could be a great fit for what I want to do. We shall see…thanks again for talking about this. Onwards and upwards, God bless!
Just finished the first book, can’t wait to keep reading in the series. Thanks for the great recommendation my 5 year old fell asleep each night we read by my 8 year old listened with rapt attention.