The “great blue house” in the countryside is imagined through all the seasons from summer, when children’s voices fill the air, to when the family leaves through winter, spring, and to the next summer when they return. The house, however, is neither quiet nor empty when the family is absent, as one is invited to listen to the sounds made, for example, by the “buckle and crack” of the frost and by those who inhabit the house: a mouse, a cat, and a bird. The poetic narrative is accompanied by Impressionist-style paintings of the house and surroundings in predominantly blue and green hues. Still-life paintings depict the interior of the house in glowing colors . hc

When its owners leave, a summer house comes alive with the sounds of a mouse nibbling crumbs in the fall, a cat taking shelter in the winter, and rain falling on the roof in the spring.