Built with love
Lucas creates a snowman that helps him feel close to Dad.
Welcome to the Story House
Every story opens a new door.
Heartfelt stories about family, kindness, courage, and connection.
Featuring More Than a Snowman, written and illustrated by Pat Murphy.
Now available
One snowman. A whole neighborhood of memories.
When Lucas builds a snowman to feel closer to his deployed father, an ordinary winter creation becomes something the whole community can share.
More Than a Snowman is a tender illustrated story about love across distance, the quiet power of kindness, and how one child’s idea can bring people together.
FamilyServiceCommunityMemory
Inside the story
A small act grows into something more.
Each page carries the story from a child’s love for his father to a neighborhood’s shared expression of gratitude and remembrance.
Shared across miles
A message lets Dad know that love can travel any distance.
Held by a community
Neighbors add their own stories until the snowman belongs to everyone.
What lives here
Stories children can feel—and families can carry with them.
Murphy’s Story House is a growing home for illustrated books that honor children’s emotional lives and make room for meaningful conversations.
Family
The bonds that steady us, even when the people we love are far away.
Kindness
Everyday choices that can quietly change someone else’s world.
Courage
Making space for difficult feelings while finding a way forward.
Connection
The surprising ways a story can turn neighbors into a community.
Meet the storyteller
Written and illustrated by Pat Murphy
Pat Murphy is an author and illustrator with more than 35 years of experience in illustration, animation, and visual storytelling.
His children’s stories combine expressive artwork with themes of family, courage, kindness, memory, and community.
Creator of Murphy’s Story House
Read about PatCome inside. There are stories waiting.
Explore the first title from Murphy’s Story House—and make room on the shelf for those still to come.