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A review by book_concierge
The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson
3.0
Illustrated by Beth Krommes
Swanson was inspired by nursery rhymes / poems handed down through many generations, featuring cumulative patterns (such has The House That Jack Built). In this book, she names all the objects, both in and outside a house at night time, that are familiar and comforting to a child: a key, a bed, a book, the moon, etc. In this way a child examines and is comforted by his/her place in the greater world.
I remember reading cumulative pattern books to my baby brother, my nieces and nephew. They were delighted by the repetition and occasional rhymes. This book didn’t have that same kind of repetition. I see where Swanson was inspired by those types of nursery rhymes and poems, but I didn’t “hear” the magic in the words.
Beth Krommes was awarded the Caldecott Medal for her illustrations. The pen and ink drawings are uniformly dark, with spots of golden yellow light .. from the moon, or a bedside lamp. They are times very focused (an adult hand holding a key), and at other times panoramic (a bird flying across the landscape of a town), but always show the child in relation to this universe. All of them are wonderfully detailed. 4**** for her artwork.
Swanson was inspired by nursery rhymes / poems handed down through many generations, featuring cumulative patterns (such has The House That Jack Built). In this book, she names all the objects, both in and outside a house at night time, that are familiar and comforting to a child: a key, a bed, a book, the moon, etc. In this way a child examines and is comforted by his/her place in the greater world.
I remember reading cumulative pattern books to my baby brother, my nieces and nephew. They were delighted by the repetition and occasional rhymes. This book didn’t have that same kind of repetition. I see where Swanson was inspired by those types of nursery rhymes and poems, but I didn’t “hear” the magic in the words.
Beth Krommes was awarded the Caldecott Medal for her illustrations. The pen and ink drawings are uniformly dark, with spots of golden yellow light .. from the moon, or a bedside lamp. They are times very focused (an adult hand holding a key), and at other times panoramic (a bird flying across the landscape of a town), but always show the child in relation to this universe. All of them are wonderfully detailed. 4**** for her artwork.