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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: susan marie swanson, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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1. The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes

The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (May 5, 2008)
Amazon Price: $11.56
ISBN-10: 0618862447
ISBN-13: 978-0618862443
Source of book: Review copy from publisher


If you're looking for a soothing and memorable bedtime story that will lull your little one to sleep, look no further. Inspired by the cumulative poem, "This is the key of the kingdom," The House in the Night is a cumulative poem that begins with a father handing his small child a key to the house. When the child opens the door, we see a bed, and "on that bed waits a book. In that book flies a bird." The child imagines hopping on this bird's back and flying through the dark, seeing the moon, the sun on the moon's face, and back into the house where the child is tucked into bed by her mother and falls sound asleep.

The text itself is simple enough for a beginning reader to understand, and young children learning new words will enjoy the repetition of the common objects presented in the book:

"Through the dark glows the moon.
On the moon's face shines the sun.
Sun in the moon,
moon in the dark,
dark in the song,
song in the bird,
bird in the book,
book on the bed..."

Beth Krommes' detailed black and white scratchboard illustrations with splashes of a vibrant watercolor yellow throughout are AMAZING and add to the book's warm tone. I predict that children will love having this book read to them, and it's destined to become a classic that many families will enjoy for generations.


Other Bedtime Book Recommendations:
Who Will Sing a Lullaby?
In a Blue Room
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

What Other Bloggers Are Saying:
Book of the Day: The book as a whole is a quieter, gentler story than many others found in the children’s room. It would be perfect for a bedtime story, or for a quiet spell in the middle of a busy day. (Read more...)

Fuse #8: "Fifty years from now libraries and websites will be filled with queries from people asking, 'There's this book I've been trying to find from years. It took place at night and there was yellow . . . it was really gorgeous. Does anyone remember it?'" (Read more...)

A Patchwork of Books: "A very enjoyable bedtime story, you'll probably have to read again and again. " (Read more...)

If you have a review of this book, leave a comment with your link, and I'll post it here!

0 Comments on The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes as of 6/4/2008 7:35:00 PM
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2. Class In YA Lit

Sherman Alexie mentioned in a recent speech that "There isn’t a lot of poverty literature in the young-adult world." The Ya Ya Yas noted that, and mused about how class figured in (or didn't) in a recent book.

And, in true blogger fashion, that's inspired a list! There are already a few books in the comments; go and add some, if you can think of any.

Because here's the thing; while my first reaction was "oh of course there are" and my second was "well, he didn't say there wasn't any, just that there wasn't a lot", I do think poverty and economics is an area that isn't always explored in books. Please, go leave suggestions of books at the Ya Ya Ya post. And check out LW's post on books about social class.

As you think about titles, consider this.

If it's a family struggling in the past, is it really about class? Or is the message of the book, people starved back in Little House in the Prairie days, but not now? Or is the message, hardships happen with war, but once the war is over, it'll be OK?

I mention historical fiction type books, because as I began to think of titles I realized many of them were set in the past.

Why is it important for kids to read? I was speaking with a woman about Alexie's book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and she read it, and she was giving it to her teenage granddaughter to read. Why? Because it's a great book; and she also wanted her middle class granddaughter to know that being poor isn't about not having the newest iPod. If a child lives in an affluent suburb, books are one way for them to know that other people live different lives.

On the flip side, as I've mentioned in the past, I had a parent object to Because of Winn Dixie for her 10 year old because she didn't want her child to know that people lived in trailer parks. Note, please, as readers of Winn Dixie know, that it was simply a trailer park. All I can wonder is -- what will happen when this child meets someone who was raised in a trailer park? I find it troubling, especially when the same family had read all the Little House books. Poor in the past, OK. Poor now? Not OK.

Anyway, go over to the Ya Ya Ya's and share some titles!

7 Comments on Class In YA Lit, last added: 1/1/2008
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