Half a House: an excerpt from a novel

This thesis is as much of a love letter to Earth and all her inhabitants as it is a lamentation. Though written for children, it refuses to smooth over, downplay, or withhold the devastations of capitalism, the climate crisis, the Industrial Revolution, homophobia, and urbanization. Rather, this thesis seeks to bear witness, providing a companion with which to prepare for the world children are met with instead of the world we wish for them. Following an eleven-year-old autistic boy's friendship with a curmudgeonly elderly queer man, Half a House explores the pressing feeling of not belonging, unconventional friendships, community, and creaturehood. It demonstrates the responsibility I believe children's literature has to implore our community to think about their animal selves and their identity as a tellurian. It seeks to re-earn children's trust, honoring their incredible sensitivities, innate animism, and deep intelligence of the world in which they find themselves.