The (Vacation) Home Is Where the Heart Is.

The Little Blue Cottage
Written by Kelly Jordan & Illustrated by Jessica Courtney-Tickle
Age Level: 3-8 Years
Published May 12, 2020

Girl + Summer House = Love Story

Every summer of my childhood, my family vacationed in South Carolina. We stayed in a house that my grandparents owned, a short walk from the ocean along a sandy path. I still remember the house's scent of pine needles, freshly laundered beach towels, and ocean air.

Like many families, we missed our vacation this year. But my children and I were comforted all summer long by The Little Blue Cottage, a touching story that captures the magic of childhood summers through its pictures and prose. 

Each year, a young girl (who happens to be biracial) spends summers at a charming blue cottage by the sea. Carefree days are spent swimming in the water, fishing off the dock, and flying a kite along the shore. We watch the girl grow bigger each year, and in between summers the little cottage patiently awaits her return.

“The little cottage smelled like bacon, pancakes, and popcorn. 
The little girl smelled like syrup, sunscreen, and sea.”

One summer the girl never comes. The little blue cottage waits, and waits, and waits. Several summers pass and the house fades, wilts, loses hope. Finally, the girl returns as and adult with a husband and child of her own. Her father is with her, white haired and aged, but her mother is absent. The house and family are overjoyed to be reunited, their bond unbroken. 

It's a delicate, beautifully told story that touches on the passage of time, the preciousness of childhood summers, and the special place in our hearts that we have for our favorite vacation spots. And it's a reminder that all of our little blue cottages are missing us just as much as we miss them this summer.