Pivotal Kids Book

The House in the Night

Winner: Caldecott Medal

by Susan Marie Swanson, Illustrated by Beth Krommes

From the Reviews

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.

Swanson's words are short simple. "Here is the key to the house / In the house burns a light / In that light rests a bed." As we read, a small child places the key on a hook as a dog, a cat, and some kittens mill about. She walks into the room and spots a book on the bed. "In that book flies a bird." As the text grows expansive, discussing the bird's song, the girl imagines taking a trip on its back above the land, "Through the dark", past the moon, and the sun, and the sky. In the end she goes to bed, not far from the key in, "the house in the night, a home full of light." The shape of the story allows it to go from a small intimate story to an exciting flight around the world, and then back to bed where the little girl curls up cozily and falls asleep. It's a tribute to bedtime stories themselves, without ever being blunt about its potential applications.

Krommes uses a scratchboard style with watercolor. In fact the only color in this book is the singular yellow of the sun, the moon, the stars, and other key points in the pictures.  Each page has treasures to explore

"Gentle bedtime reading, consider this a book that is designed to illuminate a child's dreams. "  

"This will become a classic good night book."

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