The House in the Night (Caldecott Medal Winner)

by Susan Marie Swanson

Overview

A spare, patterned text and glowing pictures explore the origins of light that make a house a home in this 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547528304
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/05/2008
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Susan Marie Swanson is an award-winning poet and the author of several children's books. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Read an Excerpt

Here is the key to the house In the house burns a light In that light rests a bed On that bed waits a book . . .

Editorial Reviews

Inspired by a traditional poem from The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book, Swanson's cumulative tale begins, "Here is the key to the house." Readers are welcomed inside the house, where they find a light, a bed within the light, a book on that bed and a bird inside that book. The book opens to reveal a bird that sings a song about the dark, and within that song are the moon and the sun shining on the moon's face. And then, from deep in the night, the poem begins to climb back out of itself: "Sun in the moon, / moon in dark, / dark in the song, / song in the bird," and so forth, finally arriving back to "the house in the night" which is, indeed, a "home full of light." 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. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews

"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 —

From the Publisher