The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, Beth Krommes (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

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.

Publishers Weekly

Using only a few graceful words per page to illuminate the dark, this bedtime gem shines its light clearly on things that matter-a home filled with books, art, music and ever-present love. Krommes's (The Lamp, the Ice, and a Boat Called Fish) astonishing illustrations are so closely intertwined with the meticulous text that neither can be isolated without a loss of meaning. The book begins, intriguingly, "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." That book takes the child reader up into the skies and back home again, to sleep ("dark in the song, song in the bird, / bird in the book, book on the bed"). Krommes's black-and-white scratchboard illustrations are as delicate and elegant as snowflakes, and she uses a single color, a marigold, to bring warmth to both home and stars. 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. Ages 3-6. (May)

Children's Literature

As the sun sets, the tale of the house in the night begins with its golden key. In a progression of brief, simple statements in the cumulative pattern of "The green grass grew all around," we move from, "in the house burns a light," and "In that light rests a bed," through a book, a bird, a song, and the moon glowing in the dark. Then we progress back past the moon in the dark and the dark in the song, into the light in the house and the key to the "home full of light." The restful cadences wish us a good night. This old-fashioned story structure is pictured in scratchboard with touches of yellow watercolor to create the light. Detailed double-page scenes with shapes suggesting sculptured objects with play of black and white areas create inviting landscapes, peaceful undulating hills, and ribbons of roads making a community. Krommes uses her medium to produce a variety of textures that add design complexity as they enhance the spare tale. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1- Inspired by traditional cumulative poetry, Swanson weaves a soothing song that is as luminescent and soulful as the gorgeous illustrations that accompany her words. A journey both humble and epic begins with a key to a house. "Here is the key to the house./In the house burns a light./In that light rests a bed...." In the bedroom of the house, a girl reads a book in which a bird "breathes a song...all about the starry dark." Swanson's poem then takes readers on a flight across the night sky to the realm of the moon and sun, then back along the path to the key that marked the beginning of the journey. Krommes's folk-style black-and-white etchings with touches of yellow-orange make the world of the poem an enchanted place. Patches of light and shadow give shape to the darkness, while smiling celestial bodies populate the potentially lonely night with their friendly warmth. This picture book will make a strong impression on listeners making their first acquaintance with literature. It is a masterpiece that has all the hallmarks of a classic that will be loved for generations to come.-Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI

Kirkus 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)

Product Details

• Read an Excerpt

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 . . .