The House in the Night

The House in the Night
Susan Marie Swanson
illustrated by Beth Krommes

Genre: Fiction/Illustrator Study

My rating: 4 out of 5

The House in the Night tells the story of a young girl who is given a golden key to a house. The simple text continues to describe things that lie within the house, "In the house / burns a light. / In that light / rests a bed. On that bed / waits a book.” The text continues to build upon fantastical images such as a bird from the book carrying the girl through a star-lit sky and reaching its peak when the girl comes face-to-face with a grinning moon. The text then reverses itself and takes us back through the dark into the room where on the bed a book lies.

I enjoyed this story simply because of Beth Kromme's artwork. The story is simple, written in a familiar cyclic format. It is my opinion that the book's success comes from the artwork. Beth Krommes flawlessy uses her familiar scratchboard technique, using a limited palette of bold black and white with smatterings of shocking gold. Krommes’ illustrations expand on Swanson’s story, highlightiong the coziness of the home as well as the magnificent world that waits just beyond the bedroom window, in the song of a bird. My favorite illustration is one depicting the satrry dark. It covers two pages and details rolling meadows, trees, houses, barns, and cars casually motoring along the roads. I love the lack of color Krommes decided to use. In doing so, the sparse use of gold is especially effective, and adds a magical element to the night sky. I would definitely recommend this as a piece to read aloud in a kindergarten classroom.