Little Yellow House
Finding Community in a Changing Neighbourhood
An extended love note to a notorious neighbourhood. In this series of poignant and honest stories, Carissa introduces readers to her neighbours— cat rescuers and murder victims, community activists and sex workers. Each one help readers discover the beauty, tragedy and power of compassion in their own communities.
Finalist: Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize
What the Critics Say
"Halton clearly delights in interacting with people from all walks of life; her interest and empathy sparkle throughout. Her tone is factual, nonjudgmental, and often wryly funny. Little Yellow House is a balanced presentation of a diverse community in transition, complete with faults and growing pains... Little Yellow House shows how real, sustainable community development can be built with a formula of persistent action, engagement with a wide group of allies, trust, layers of incremental successes, and a good sense of humor."
It's an illuminating and hopeful book that asks readers to think again about what makes places liveable, and also provides a wonderful glimpse of Jane Jacobs' proverbial sidewalk ballet.
Great cities and neighbourhoods are containers for stories, just like this book is, and every one of these is delightfully readable and well-written right down to the sentence level. And Halton is not afraid of tension, of ambiguity and uncertainty, something living in the city teaches you, and so each of these stories is suspended in a careful place, not neatly packaged or simply concluded. Which gives their culmination the effect of a walk through a city street, of glimpses, moments, and changing scenes—a most satisfying and delightful excursion.
This book is an excellent resource for communities wanting to create change. It can also be a starting point for discussion with students in professional programs—nursing, social work, public health—and academic disciplines, such as sociology and anthropology, to focus on identifying Who are the vulnerable? Who gets to decide that they’re vulnerable? and What community-based solutions honour lifestyle choices? Little Yellow House shows readers there are ways of working and living together that really do respect diversity. I loved this book.