A spare, patterned text and glowing pictures explore the origins of light that make a house a home in this Caldecott Medal-winning bedtime book for young children. Naming nighttime things that are both comforting and intriguing to preschoolers—a key, a bed, the moon—this timeless book illuminates a reassuring order to the universe.
The House in the Night
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Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
*Starred Review* A young girl is given a golden key to a house. “In the house / burns a light. / In that light / rests a bed. On that bed / waits a book.” And so continues this simple text, which describes sometimes fantastical pleasures as a bird from the book spirits the child through the starry sky to a wise-faced moon. The cumulative tale is a familiar picture-book conceit; the difference in success comes from the artwork. Here, the art is spectacular. Executed in scratchboard decorated in droplets of gold, Krommes’ illustrations expand on Swanson’s reassuring story (inspired by a nursery rhyme that begins, “This is the key of the kingdom”) to create a world as cozy inside the house as it is majestic outside. The two-page spread depicting rolling meadows beyond the home, dotted with trees, houses, barns, and road meeting the inky sky, is mesmerizing. The use of gold is especially effective, coloring the stars and a knowing moon, all surrounded with black-and-white halos. A beautiful piece of bookmaking that will delight both parents and children. Preschool-Kindergarten. --Ilene Cooper
Review
"Krommes’s widening perspective manages to exude both comfort and daring." -- New York Times Book Review
"Here the art is spectacular. Executed in scratchboard decorated in droplets of gold, Krommes’ illustrations expand on Swanson’s reassuring story (inspired by a nursury rhyme that begins, “This is the key of the kingdom”) to create a world as cozy inside a house as it is majestic outside."--Booklist, starred review
"Inspired by traditional cumulative poetry, Swanson weaves a soothing song that is as luminescent and soulful as the gorgeous illustrations that accompany her words. . . . It is a masterpiece that has all the hallmarks of a classic that will be loved for generations to come."--School Library Journal, starred review
"Krommes’s breathtaking scratchboard illustrations, in black and white with accents of yellow and gold, embody and enhance the text’s message that light and dark, like comfort and mystery, are not mutually exclusive, but integral parts of each other."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"This volume's artful simplicity, homely wisdom and quiet tone demonstrate the interconnected beauty and order of the world in a way that both children and adults will treasure."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"...in another standout performance by an illustrator, Beth Krommes makes a case for The House in the Night with scratchboard images that are themselves a throwback, but with a welcome kind of familiarity... I can see a night-skittish child taking comfort in this story at bedtime."-- The Washington Post (online)
"[A] book of stunning visual simplicity . . . The pictures themselves seem to reach out from domesticity toward infinity."--Liz Rosenberg, Boston Sunday Globe
"It's Wanda Gag meets Virginia Lee Burton. And gorgeous. Did I mention gorgeous? Gorgeous."-- Fuse 8 Production (online), by Betsy Bird
"[Swanson] has a lyrical style all her own, complemented by Krommes' starkly stunning scratchpaper drawings."-- StarTribune
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More About the Author
SUSAN MARIE SWANSON is the author of Getting Used to the Dark: 26 Night Poems and the picture book Letter to the Lake, both illustrated by Peter Catalanotto. As a visiting poet in schools, she reads and writes poetry with children. Her reviews and essays about children's literature regularly appear in Riverbank Review, for which she is a contributing editor. Ms. Swanson lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
71 of 74 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Sometimes, just sometimes, you want to read a beautiful picture book. Not a pretty picture book or a mildly lovely one or a picture book that will please you the first ten times you read it to a child and then hardly anymore after that. No, I'm talking about a jaw-dropping, kick-you-in-the-pants, douse your cigar hussy of a beautiful picture book. The kind that works against your book-loving instincts, tempting you to rip out the pages and frame them on your wall. That kind of book. The first time I saw an ad for "The House in the Night" by Susan Marie Swanson and Beth Krommes I wanted it. Generally scratchboard art doesn't appeal to me, but there's something different about this title. Gentle bedtime reading, consider this a book that is designed to illuminate a child's dreams.
Inspired by a cumulative poem found in The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book, Swanson's words are short simple. "Here is the key to the house / In the house burns a light / In that light rests a bed." As we read, a small child places the key on a hook as a dog, a cat, and some kittens mill about. She walks into the room and spots a book on the bed. "In that book flies a bird." As the text grows expansive, discussing the bird's song, the girl imagines taking a trip on its back above the land, "Through the dark", past the moon, and the sun, and the sky. In the end she goes to bed, not far from the key in, "the house in the night, a home full of light." The shape of the story allows it to go from a small intimate story to an exciting flight around the world, and then back to bed where the little girl curls up cozily and falls asleep. It's a tribute to bedtime stories themselves, without ever being blunt about its potential applications.
Last year I fell in love with a different cumulative poem called The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson with illustrations by Jonathan Bean. Like this book, "Apple Pie" used the cumulative format to draw back farther and farther, to the point where the story becomes positively cosmic. Here, Swanson's text has a comforting feel to it, helped in no small part by its universal images. She's as good a picture book author as she is partly because her words give an illustrator room to get a little creative.
The first name to pop to mind, even before you open the book, is "Wanda Gag". The illustrator of such storytime classics as Millions of Cats appears to have had a direct influence on Krommes' style. I first discovered Ms. Krommes when she lent her considerable talents to Joyce Sidman's, Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow. She is recognizably the same person who has worked on "The House in the Night" but this particular book feels like someone took a photograph of her earlier work and made it into a negative image. Krommes uses a scratchboard style with watercolor. In fact he only color in this book is the singular yellow of the sun, the moon, the stars, and other key points in the pictures. Individual creatures bear the mark of Gag, particularly Krommes' cats which appear to be a direct ode. But for all her charms, Gag never illustrated a book with as much depth and scope as found in this story. This is a bedtime tale that takes into account the vastness of space and the curve of the landscapes below. And her use of yellow at meticulous moments lends loveliness to images that might have appeared too harsh.
Oddly enough, while Wanda Gag was certainly the first illustrator to come to mind when I read this, the feel of the book reminded me particularly of that wonderful Ann Jonas book Round Trip. There's something about seeing a nightscape in black and white, particularly from a distance, which conjures up similar sensations. "Round Trip" is one of those books that stick with you the rest of your life. "The House in the Night" will go the same route.
The real question: Will the kids dig it? As I've mentioned before, this is a bedtime book. The kind of story you pick up and read when the child wants something to put them to sleep. That isn't to say that they won't also find the pictures engrossing. What "The House in the Night" has in its favor is the ability to stick with a person. Fifty years from now libraries and websites will be filled with queries from people asking, "There's this book I've been trying to find from years. It took place at night and there was yellow . . . it was really gorgeous. Does anyone remember it?" And I have faith that children's librarians will be able to answer these questions readily, keeping the beloved book close at hand. A title that doesn't leave your heart or mind any too soon.
Inspired by a cumulative poem found in The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book, Swanson's words are short simple. "Here is the key to the house / In the house burns a light / In that light rests a bed." As we read, a small child places the key on a hook as a dog, a cat, and some kittens mill about. She walks into the room and spots a book on the bed. "In that book flies a bird." As the text grows expansive, discussing the bird's song, the girl imagines taking a trip on its back above the land, "Through the dark", past the moon, and the sun, and the sky. In the end she goes to bed, not far from the key in, "the house in the night, a home full of light." The shape of the story allows it to go from a small intimate story to an exciting flight around the world, and then back to bed where the little girl curls up cozily and falls asleep. It's a tribute to bedtime stories themselves, without ever being blunt about its potential applications.
Last year I fell in love with a different cumulative poem called The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson with illustrations by Jonathan Bean. Like this book, "Apple Pie" used the cumulative format to draw back farther and farther, to the point where the story becomes positively cosmic. Here, Swanson's text has a comforting feel to it, helped in no small part by its universal images. She's as good a picture book author as she is partly because her words give an illustrator room to get a little creative.
The first name to pop to mind, even before you open the book, is "Wanda Gag". The illustrator of such storytime classics as Millions of Cats appears to have had a direct influence on Krommes' style. I first discovered Ms. Krommes when she lent her considerable talents to Joyce Sidman's, Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow. She is recognizably the same person who has worked on "The House in the Night" but this particular book feels like someone took a photograph of her earlier work and made it into a negative image. Krommes uses a scratchboard style with watercolor. In fact he only color in this book is the singular yellow of the sun, the moon, the stars, and other key points in the pictures. Individual creatures bear the mark of Gag, particularly Krommes' cats which appear to be a direct ode. But for all her charms, Gag never illustrated a book with as much depth and scope as found in this story. This is a bedtime tale that takes into account the vastness of space and the curve of the landscapes below. And her use of yellow at meticulous moments lends loveliness to images that might have appeared too harsh.
Oddly enough, while Wanda Gag was certainly the first illustrator to come to mind when I read this, the feel of the book reminded me particularly of that wonderful Ann Jonas book Round Trip. There's something about seeing a nightscape in black and white, particularly from a distance, which conjures up similar sensations. "Round Trip" is one of those books that stick with you the rest of your life. "The House in the Night" will go the same route.
The real question: Will the kids dig it? As I've mentioned before, this is a bedtime book. The kind of story you pick up and read when the child wants something to put them to sleep. That isn't to say that they won't also find the pictures engrossing. What "The House in the Night" has in its favor is the ability to stick with a person. Fifty years from now libraries and websites will be filled with queries from people asking, "There's this book I've been trying to find from years. It took place at night and there was yellow . . . it was really gorgeous. Does anyone remember it?" And I have faith that children's librarians will be able to answer these questions readily, keeping the beloved book close at hand. A title that doesn't leave your heart or mind any too soon.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This will become a classic good night book. The illustrations are wonderful & the story a delight. Each page has treasures to explore.
This book will be on my "buy 10" and give out as presents all year list.
This book will be on my "buy 10" and give out as presents all year list.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By M. Hart
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The illustrations are fabulously rich and textured; the story is simple and comforting. Highly original and effective use of color -- only black, white, and golden yellow.
We checked this out from the library, and my 5-year-old loves it. Truth be told, I probably love it even more. I'll be buying a copy for our family and several more as gifts.
We checked this out from the library, and my 5-year-old loves it. Truth be told, I probably love it even more. I'll be buying a copy for our family and several more as gifts.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
sweet story
I bought this book for 2 little girls, 3 and 4. They didn't appreciate the art work as much as I did. Cute story with kitties!
Published 3 days ago by Mary Fares
5.0 out of 5 stars
The house in the night
My older students enjoyed this book as it scenery was not easy to explain to my smaller therapy kids. We were able to talk about all that was seen. Thanks
Published 4 months ago by M.Morales-Guzman
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book!
This was a great book to read! the pics. were amazing to look at. The words were smooth and it made me think how life is in the night at home. Read more
Published 5 months ago by aapaez08
3.0 out of 5 stars
a little disappointing
The illustrations are what made me buy this book and they did not disappoint. But I expected their highlights to be gold, not yellow matte. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Alis'nWonderland
1.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't live up to the reviews
I bought this because of the reviews. I was extremely disappointed as my children who love their bedtime stories asked me to stop reading it.
Published 7 months ago by Californian turned Texan
3.0 out of 5 stars
The House in the Night
The House in the Night was a very simple reading picture book thats good for children. This book was inspired by other traditional poems with cumulative patterns. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Joshua Ytuarte
5.0 out of 5 stars
mysterious and comforting at the same time
This is one of my favorite picture books of all time.
I like the scratchboard art and the lyrics are so moving despite their simplicity. Read more
I like the scratchboard art and the lyrics are so moving despite their simplicity. Read more
Published 7 months ago by sparky_magic_rainbow
3.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing illustrations, but not such an exciting story
This book is certainly worthy of the Caldecott Medal: the illustrations are incredible. But the storyline was thin. I'm not sure how engaged most children would be.
Published 9 months ago by EcoDesigner
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, gentle, easy to understand book for nighttime reading
My son absolutely loves this book (he's two and a half). The beautifully drawn pages, the simple phrases, the warm feeling it conveys overall. Read more
Published 10 months ago by J. Baron
5.0 out of 5 stars
In the tradition of "Goodnight, Moon"
Only these pictures are much more beautiful, and the story goes from the cozily domestic out into the solar system, then comes cozily back again to end in bed in a happy home. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mrs. Robinson
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