The House in the Night

Title: The House in the Night
Author: Susan Mary Swanson
Illustrator: Beth Krommes

Summary: This poetic book is about family life in the night with a special focus a child being introduced by her parents to the wonders of creation, at night. At her reading time, the child learns about nature as it relates to human life in a very diversified environment that is illuminated by the collaborative efforts of the sun and the moon and sees how her own existence is related and is dependent on the world around her.

Genre: Picture Book-Poetry

Art:  The art work in this book does not look appealing at first sight as only three colors are used in it. But a closer look at it reveals incredible details. The artist uses scratch board and watercolor to illustrate life in the house at night, which to a great degree justifies his limited use of colors--colors fade away in the dark, at night..

Literacy Elements: A single poem is illustrated in this book. There is a great use of rhymes such as; "here is the key to the house", "in the house burns a light", the house in the night", "a home  full of light" There is also a personification of the moon and the sun with statements such as "on the moon's face shines the sun".

Critical Literacy: There is  a limited use of literacy elements in this book which gives the impression that the author's poem is poor, but this limitation is compensated by the richness of the pictures that somehow speak louder than words.

Personal Evaluation: The very first sentence in this book reads; "here is the key to the house" and the picture shows the hand of a parent reaching out to their child with a key, in the night. The child then leads the way back home with her parents following behind, while the sun and the moon provide the light. With the key the child gains access to the house and to the book on the bed. What is remarkable here is the symbolism represented by the key  which can be interpreted as knowledge, while the parent giving the key to the child in the night, and the child leading the way talks about empowerment for leadership. When the child starts reading the book on the bed, her imagination takes her out the house, in the night, so that she travels through spaces and explores the wonders of creation. This can be used to inspire children to read, as knowledge is the key that gives us access to the universe.