The House in the Night

Swanson, S. (2008). The House in the Night. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Brief Annotation: This story takes you through a young child's journey through night. It starts with someone giving the young person a key to a house. Then they see that there is a light on in the house, and it leads them to a book where there is a bird in the book. They ride the bird into the night and see all of the light that is in the night. They return back to the home, on the bird, into bed and realize that the same light exists within their home. “A house full of light”.

Genre: Picturebook *Caldecott Medal Winner 2009

Grade Level: Pre-K- Grade 1

Readers who will like this: Young readers who can enjoy the poem and look at the beautiful illustrations. The book is simple, but does have a great theme behind it. The understanding that the sun is full of light, but that light also can be right in a persons home is a really cool concept. Light gives everyone energy and I think the young children may understand the idea of light filling up
our homes. The illustrations are all black and white, but then yellow with the things that are light up, so it gives the children things to look for throughout the story.

Response/Rating (1-4): 3, I think that the illustrations in this book are amazing, but I am not sure it grabs the readers attention as much as I was expecting. The poem is sweet and simple, but doesn't tell a very full story. You can see that the young person finds all of this cool light in the night, but it doesn't actually lead you anywhere other than back into the house. I do think it is a unique and fun book though, definitely worth a read.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: “Has anyone ever given you a key before?” “What did you do with the key?”

Reading strategies connection: With younger kids it is going to be important to provide simple but clear connections to the stories. I would use the Ten Important Words activity to try and incorporate the words from the poem. (Yopp, pg. 90). I would have the students (if they were old enough) write out ten important words that they found in the book. From there I would ask them why these words were important to the story. I would end the lesson with a time of discussion and see if they enjoyed the poem.