The Irresistible Henry House: Lisa Grunwald

So, this was another book on the Amazon 2010 list. I probably wouldn't have even read it had it not been on the list. However, it turned out to be fairly interesting. The premise of the book is a program many universities had around World War II times known as "house babies." (See here for proof that I'm not making this up.) Basically, the home economics programs of these universities would have "house babies" taken from local orphanages during the first few months of life, and they were "raised" by a succession of students in the house. There were usually 6-7 students, who took turns each day helping with the house baby. At around age 2, the babies were then adopted by new parents. Typically, the parents viewed the babies as ideal, as they had been cared for and had "good" habits instilled in them at the practice house.

The author of the book, intrigued by the whole program after reading about it at the Cornell University website (where the link above takes you), decided to imagine what would happen if one of the house babies didn't get adopted later, but simply remained at the practice house with the house mother. The book chronicles how she imagines his life ending up. It all occurred during the 50s, 60s, and 70s, so she creates a career for him, and places him in various historical situations. (Think "Forrest Gump" - the premise behind that movie is similar to what she did here.)

Anyway, the book was interesting - just the fact that such a program existed was hard to take in at first. Imagining what would have happened to Henry was interested, but also led you to think about how all the other kids turned out. (In one part of the book, Henry finds one of the other house babies after she's all grown as well...it's fairly interesting how she turned out.)

It's imaginative, and I don't know how the kids really turned out - but it was fun to read nonetheless. :)