The Napping House [Hardcover]

Audrey Wood (Author), Don Wood (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2009 | Age Range: 4 - 8 years

<DIV>Delightful cumulative rhyme leads up to the consequences of piling too many sleepy people and animals in a cozy bed. Don Wood s paintings endow Audrey s familiar plot with beauty and newness, conveying atmosphere as well as illustrating the story. --Publishers Weekly
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There is a house,
a napping house,
where everyone is sleeping.

"Everyone," in this case is a snoring granny, a dreaming child, a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering mouse... and a wakeful flea! Uh-oh. Looks like the napping house won't be napping for long. With their very own brand of humor, Audrey Wood and Don Wood create an appealing bedtime book compatible with Margaret Wise Brown's classic Goodnight Moon. This small, square board book, with its rhythmic, repetitive text and witty pictures in shades of ever-brightening blues and greens (as the night turns to day), is sure to be a winner with preschool insomniacs. The sleepy household congregates on Granny's bed, slowly building a very relaxed pile of bodies in shifting positions. Young readers will enjoy tracking the critters as they make their way, one by one, to the bed--and then guessing what will happen when the wakeful flea joins the heap. Be sure to look for this author-illustrator team's other hilarious collaborative efforts, including Piggies and Silly Sally. (Baby to preschool) --Emilie Coulter --This text refers to the Board book edition.

Review

A picture-book favorite returns as an oversize board book just right for lap reading: The Napping House by Audrey Wood, illus. by Don Wood. The misty blue artwork that chronicles the "dreaming child," "snoring granny" and a number of additional snoozers seems to bleed off the pages with their rounded corners, until that "wakeful flea" disrupts the sleepers and the sunny colors signal the end of naptime. --(Publishers Weekly )

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Product Details

• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1 edition (May 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152014179
• ISBN-13: 978-0152014179
• ASIN: 0152567089
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 0.4 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (190 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Children's Books > Social Situations > Sleep

More About the Author

AUDREY WOOD is the much-loved author of more than thirty books for children, including the bestselling The Napping House, Piggies, Heckedy Peg, and most recently, Piggy Pie Po, which she collaborated on with her husband, Don Wood.
She lives in Hawaii.

My first memories are of Sarasota, Florida in the winter quarters of the Ringling Brothers' Circus. I was one year old and remember it vividly. My father, an art student, was making extra income by repainting circus murals.

The people in the circus were my friends. I was bounced on the knee of the tallest man in the world and rocked in the arms of the fat lady who could not stand up. My first baby-sitters were a family of little people who lived in a trailer next to ours. They tAudrey2old me stories about the animals they worked with: Chi Chi the Chimpanzee, an elephant named Elder, and Gargantua the Gorilla.

My mother says I was a fast learner, always ahead of my age. My father taught me to swim before I could walk. I walked at seven months and climbed over a seven foot chain link fence when I was one year old. Everyone in the circus thought I was going to be a trapeze artist.

When I was two, I traveled with my parents to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where they studied art. Spanish became my second language. Because my mother read to me every day, I fell in love with books and was reading by age three.

My parents had two more girls, which made me the oldest sister. All of us were trained in the arts: music, dance, painting, and drama. We had a miniature stage in our basement, complete with light-bulb floodlights and a dusty red velvet curtain. Admission for the plays we produced was a bargain--twenty-five cents.

When I was in the first grade, I wanted to grow up to be an artist like my father. Then, in the fourth grade, I decided I'd like to be a children's book author. As an adult who writes and illustrates children's books, I have realized both my childhood ambitions.

I got in trouble in school once for crossing out my favorite author's name and putting in mine--Audrey Brewer instead of Dr. Seuss!

My great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all professional artists. Since I am also a professional artist, there are four consecutive generations of artists in our family. However, I am the only female artist.

On our honeymoon, I read my new husband Don Wood the classic children's book entitled At the Back of the North Wind. Seven years later, we teamed up to create our first picture book together.

When our son Bruce Robert was two years old, I began to read picture books to him. He helped to remind me of my childhood ambitions. That's when I began to write children's books seriously.

www.Audreywood.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 73 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars is not enough!!!!! July 13, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I've been a bookseller, librarian, mother and read-aloud volunteer and this is my absolute favorite children's book for curling up with and reading to a young child. Cumulative, predictable (something young children enjoy) and engaging, The Napping House is terrific. The child in the story could be a boy or a girl. It opens and closes with an inviting look at the exterior of an old fashioned home (which looks like the author's home, BTW). Inside the house, everyone is alseep, but there's soooo much going on here. The characters are changing positions. The changes in perspective and the light as the book progresses make it interesting. The illustrations are amazing, detailed, beautiful, and at the same time humorous. And the Granny! You've got to love this Granny. She there just snoring, wearing her bed cap, nightgown and stockings (with reinforced toes & heels). She has all of these characters piling up on her and when the bed breaks, instead of looking mad or alarmed, she just looks like she's having a grand time. After you get this book, you'll want King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, and Piggies also by the Woods. And if your child likes things a bit scary try Heckedy Peg. Happy reading!

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read at Bedtime October 28, 2000

By Roz Levine

Format:Board book

This is the Napping House, where everyone is sleeping. It's dark, raining and very subdued. First there's the cozy bed, followed by the snoring granny, the dreaming child, dozing dog, snoozing cat, slumbering mouse and finally, the wakeful flea. And then the wakeful flea bites the mouse... The team of Audrey and Don Woods has put together a wonderful, gentle bedtime story pre-schoolers will want to hear again and again. With easy to read, repetitive text and beautifully detailed, expressive illustrations, youngsters watch the ever growing pile of sleeping bodies move, change position and then slowly lighten and brighten as one by one, everyone wakes up. As the book ends, the last page shows the napping house where no one is sleeping. It's sunny and cheerful with a rainbow in the sky. This is a classic the whole family will enjoy and a must for all home libraries.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars great bedtime fare October 18, 2001

By audrey TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Board book|Amazon Verified Purchase

Ah, is there anything more relaxing than a cozy nap in a warm house on a rainy day? Every inhabitant of the The Napping House manages to pile on to granny's bed for a few sociable ZZZZZs, until that damnable wakeful flea appears! If you remember cumulative stories such as "the old woman who swallowed the fly (I don't know why she swallowed that fly)", then you'll know what to expect from this charming and funny book. The illustrations are tremendous, and will keep the book fresh even after many readings. This is a book that an adult reader will enjoy, too. The board book is sturdy and easy to clean.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Can You Find The Flea? January 22, 2001

By "mari_el"

Format:Hardcover

This is a fabulous book, not only for its words, but of course for its pictures as well. I've read it to all of my nieces and nephews, ages two to ten, and they've all gotten something out of it. I especially like to get the children to follow the pictures and let me worry about the words, and this book makes it easy to do so. Talk to your kids about the pictures; there's so much to see! The little girl and the granny change positions while napping, the dog gets added, then the cat, then the mouse. And, see if they can find the flea! It's great fun, and by the time the sun comes bursting its way into the room after the story's rainstorm, you'll be a whole lot closer to your kids. It's a great book for snuggling up with in bed.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars There is a House,a Napping House,where everyone is sleeping. August 14, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Not Long ago, I was at a pizza party at my High School. A classmate recited the entire story-in-rhyme to me. She had read it in the school library. Then I went and told Mrs Weyers, one of the teachers in the student club, about the book. She said that she loved that book. When her kids (now into their twenties) were little and their granny would visit, Granny would say, "It's time to be quiet, because this is the napping house." Mrs Weyers will be glad to know that it is still in print, because she desperately wants to acquire some copies in preperation for grandchildren someday.--Robert Metz

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book (but get a larger version) January 8, 2007

By shuttershy

Format:Board book|Amazon Verified Purchase

My toddler son just loves this book, and he's memorized many of the lines. He asks for it often at bedtime, and i never get tired of reading it with him because it's so darned cute. But as another reviewer noted, the board book version is rather small. I was disappointed when i saw a larger version (still board pages) in a store. I'd go for that one.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Napping on the job February 6, 2004

By E. R. Bird HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Board book

I'm not sure exactly how to recommend this book. At the very beginning it's the perfect story to read to any child you want to put to bed. Halfway through, however, it becomes a lively rollicking/jumping/bouncing kind of tale. The premise follows a grandmother, her grandchild, a dog, a cat, a mouse and a flea as they all nap (save the flea) on a wet and rainy afternoon. Slowly, one by one they crawl on top of one another to sleep. Quickly, one by one, they wake one another due to the untimely flea bite the mouse acquired.

Don Wood, the illustrator, has done wonders with the light in these scenes. The dreary drizzly afternoon pours steadily, making the reader really want to snuggle up in a warm bed too. Then also, his drawings are quite clever. Each character appears in every single spread. The flea is represented more as a circular black dot with a halo about it. Almost as if the flea was lit from inside. Kids will probably enjoy locating the mouse and the flea in each and every picture as the scenes change and the characters toss and turn in bed. In the end, I was particularly taken with the grandmother. Sleeping in her nylon-like socks, her reaction upon falling back upon her bed and breaking it is one of pure joy. Atta girl, grandma! In that second to last scene in the book, daylight streams into the room, the blue walls now a cheery and dazzling yellow. Any child uncertain of the benefits of napping (of which there may be one or two) will enjoy seeing how lively and boisterous the characters are after getting a good afternoon's rest. The last page of the book speaks volumes for the benefits of sleep. A marvelous story.