Customer Reviews

The House in the Night

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book offers an age-old tune with new words. Taking after the old story that starts "This is the key to the kingdom," Ms. Swanson updates it to use modern, recognizable objects within the reader's own home. The scratchboard illustrations accent the true depth and reassuring tone of the story that leads readers to better understand order through repetition.
Krommes illustration technique of scratchboard with intermittent color accentuating the important parts of the story lead the reader to a textured, moving realm of literature. As Swanson uses simple words to help children know order and objects, the storyline also tells the tale of a child getting ready for bed and using his/her imagination to travel outside his/her home. After going into the home, into her room, into her book, and into the world the reader is then transported back into the book, into the room, into the house, and into the world of the character.
As a former art major student and artist I can fully appreciate the time it took for the illustrations in this book to be created. Scratchboard a difficult medium to work in, and can create a great deal of movement in the final piece.
As for the text, it does do a wonderful job in reinforcing timeline, order, and organization. The naming of basic objects, and the illustrations of more to name later on your own, creates a learning opportunity for young readers. The underlying message of being able to leave your home in your imagination through books, and the ability to return to it later, just as you left it is a wonderful way to entice young readers to read more books.

This is one of the most beautiful picture books of the year. The contrast of the black and yellow throughout the book amplifies the book's theme of the light and comfort that can be found at night. A perfect book to read to a baby or toddler to alleviate their fears of the darkness. Truly a lovely book.

My 6 month old is fascinated by the black and white pictures and the rhymes in this book. This will be a book read for many years to come. I just fell in love with this book and think she will too, over and over again.

The House in the Night is a great book. It's about a girl who reads a book about a bird. She imagines that the bird is flying through the night with her on its back. I love the illustrations in this book.

Based off of a beloved children's book or yore called "This is the Key of the Kingdom" in which the same cyclical nature of the narrative takes place, Swanson seeks to replicate the way the story looks and feels with her own book as well as expound upon it. The book starts out by stating simply, "Here is the key to the house," and builds from there. There is no rhyming, as is typical of poetry directed at this age group, but despite that, there is a poetic quality to the writing. The book begins and ends with the same type of thoughts, "the house in the night, a home full of light" but throughout the middle, the child is taken on a wonderful journey with the moon as she ushers in night in the city, creating a fantasy element out of the mystery of the moon and dreams.

The writing itself is simple and easy to follow, definitely aimed toward the 1-5 age group as an illustrated children's book, but the illustrations are beautiful and enrapturing. Unquestionably, this is a young children's book, but I believe that because of the unique quality of the illustrations, readers of any age can enjoy and be inspired by it to create their own art and writing that will add to the human dialogue and culture. I recommend this text to all readers for it's artistic merit, but specifically to ages 1 - 5.

-Lindsey Miller, lindseyslibrary

This book is recommend for ages 4-8, but my two year old loves it. I read it to her at bed time, and she can recite the last word of every page. This book has beautiful pictures and nice poetry. It would make great gifts for toddlers.

LOVELY heart warming words and pictures transport you away into the night. Very worthy of winning the caldecott. It's rhythm similar to
old nursery tales told.