THE HOUSE IN THE NIGHT

The House in the Night

Written by: Susan Marie Swanson

Illustrated by: Beth Krommes

Houghton Mifflin, 2008

36 pages

Poem

            I choose to read this book for I was drawn to its black and glowing yellow illustrations. The story was written from the inspiration of an old nursery rhyme book that was published in 1955. The book is written in both a poetic and comforting way for it has a smooth flow. The poetic story follows a young child as she journey to bed and the light in which leads the way. The story includes simple elements in which follows as the sun goes down and the fantasies in which float in our heads as we drift off.

            The books illustrations where done by scratchboard in black, white and yellow only. The yellow is used to highlight the elements of light and are meant to catch the eyes of readers. The text in the story is written in an informal form for it fits in around the illustrations. I believe this was done because of the limited words on each page. If the reader looks deep within each page he or she will she will notice unmentioned confronts of the night such as teddy bear, a sleeping dog, and a cozy rocker chair. The stories illustrations even won the Caldecott Medal in 2009.

                The 2009 Caldecott Medal Winner, The House in the Night, is a book written primarily for preschool aged children. However, I would introduce the story to a kindergarten class as a read aloud. The story could be used for teaching sight word reading, phonics, and rimes. I personally have used the book as a night time story for my son for its flow is soft and comforting.