The illustrations are charming and the story compelling. Casual references to WWI lead to questions from children, as does the use of words like beck for creek. My students love to have me read it aloud to them. But beware - Ive been a teacher for 30 years. Ive purchased thousands of books. When a book is described as being written for 4-7 year olds, the understanding is that the children can read it themselves (although most 4-year-olds cant read). This is definitely a book to be read aloud. The vocabulary is advanced, as is the sentence structure. Behind it [the house] stretched a garden, and burbling at the bottom of the garden was the beck, or stream.