So......tonight I'm going to talk about The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson (Illustrated by Beth Krommes). This picture book was the Caldecott Winner last year and the pictures are obviously wonderful, but the illustrations are not the only great thing about The House in the Night.It's like a traditional poem with a cumulative pattern. Here is the key to the house.....in the house burns a light....In the light rests a bed.....and so on. In the beginning, Swanson simply references concrete objects, but as the pattern grows the objects are less literal and more lyrical:
On that bed waits a book.
In that book flies a bird.
In that bird breathes a song...
all about the starry dark.
Read this to your children. They will want to hear it again and again.
I love this book! This will be one that if I ever have children will be a book I read to them. It is a book as a child I would have loved. I also love the pictures because I can stare at the forever and get lost in them.
ReplyDeleteOMG, this book is great! Is it available for check-out?
ReplyDeleteYes it is!
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