The House in the Night

The House in the Night
by Susan Marie Swanson illustrated by Beth Krommes
Ages 3-6
****
Caldecott

The House in the Night is a cumulative story in which a girl is given a key to a house "In the house burns a light.  In that light rests a bed" and so on.  The story travels from her brightly lit house to the face of the moon and back to find her comforting place in this vast world.

The story in The House in the Night was simple and comforting much like the story in Goodnight Moon.  What I particularly enjoyed was how it moved from a micro view of the girl in her house in the light to the girl on a bird watching the sun hit the face of the moon then back to the comfort of her home.  It gave sense of how infinite life is moving from the girls room, to the surrounding countryside,  to the moon.  This could be an overwhelming feeling but rather there is a sense of interconnectedness.  The text and illustrations create a theme of dark and light, existing together; the moon is visible because the sun is shining on its face, even in the dark of night the girls room is filled with light from the moon and stars "Sun in the moon, moon in the dark, dark in the song, song in the bird".  Ultimately the girl returns to her home, her own niche in a vast world.
I often had trouble sleeping as a child and my thoughts would wander to all of the things that I did not have answers to or were unexplainable and overwhelming as a child.  I would have found this book very comforting as a bedtime read.  The illustrations are what really makes the story unique and powerful.  Krommes uses scratchboard and watercolor to create intimate images full of movement and character even when there is little actual action in the story.  The scratchboard technique gives the pages a lot of texture and contrasting shadows which emphasizes the theme of dark and light.  The images appear as intimate glimpses into the light in the house in the night.

I might use read this to a kindergarten class as a way to slow down the pace of the classroom.  The text is very simple and rhythmic with a repetitive language structure.  The words lull the reader into the story and give a sense of calm and comfort.  Children would really enjoy the illustrations which are simple yet full of detail which they would linger over pointing out new discoveries.  I might also use this to prompt the students to think about their own home and view of the world.  We could describe what is in our home, then around our home, then our furthest sense of what we know. The illustrations are also very rural so I think it would appeal to students in Iowa.