February 2016 – The Reader and the Book

NappingHouse-Home_01

The Woods have done it again! Their classic, “The Napping House,” has a companion. Rhyming and rhythmic text merrily gallops along the pages, in a similar fashion as the original. Due to the full moon, though, it works in reverse.

So it begins: “There is a house,

a full-moon house,

where everyone is restless.”

Most of the characters are the same. Granny, the child, the dog, a cat, a mouse, and a cricket (instead of the flea). They are sleepless, fidgety, playful, prowling, worried, and chirping, respectively, but not cozy, snoring, dreaming, dozing, snoozing, nor napping!

Don Wood is the illustrator, using the same vivid blues and warm tones so we have this feeling that there is something quite familiar, that we just might know this book, yet we do NOT! It is great fun in a whole new way!

Reading Level: 4 – 8 Years

Author:

Audrey Wood is the author of many beloved books for children, including the bestselling classic The Napping House, Caldecott Honor Book King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, Heckedy Peg, Piggies, The Big Hungry Bear, and Piggy Pie Po, all of which were illustrated by her husband, Don Wood. She has written and illustrated others as well. All can be found @ their website which includes a video of this couple talking about this book. They are on Twitter too @AudreyWoodBooks

Illustrator:

Don Wood is the illustrator of many books for children, including The Napping House, Caldecott Honor Book King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, Heckedy Peg, Piggies, and Piggy Pie Po, plus he wrote and illustrated Into the Volcano. The Woods live in both California and Hawaii. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has a website for this couple @ HMHBooks/The Napping House.

Book Information:

ISBN-13:9780544308329

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Publication date:09/01/2015

Pages:32

Product dimensions:9.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)

9685dd465749df80929098bd52d9df17

9781454910633

Do you recall the rhyming, counting song, “This old man, he plays one…?” Of course you do!! I know, you will be humming it for the next hour or two and be thinking about me in maybe a not-so-nice way!! Sorry!

This cute and fun vehicle-counting book will take us, of the “hippie” generation, down a nostalgic highway with Grandma and Grandpa in their flower-covered, colorful VW bus.

This pair is invited to a special event of their grandson’s and told not to be late. They pack up and head off across the miles. All the while, we wonder if they will get to where they are going on time.

To the tune of “This Old Man,” we sing the words to this counting-the-miles as they merrily tootle along the road passing by many a vehicle. We count one train, two construction vehicles, three tractors, four semis, five vintage cars, six dump trucks, seven pickup trucks with horse trailers, eight new cars on a car hauler, nine school buses, and ten dirt bikes. Kids will have fun singing this new version, seeing the different types of vehicles passed along the way, and looking at the detail on each page. There are, then, replicas of these vehicles in the special event at the end, making it all even more fun.

Each vehicle has a face with headlight eyes. The colors are bright while the late 1960s and 1970s symbolism is clearly painted on the bus as well as in various scenes along the way. Grandma and Grandpa are friendly folks and dressed as if they were still in 1969.

This is a delightful and fun choice for those young ones who are hooked on cars and trucks of all sorts.

Reading Level: 3 – 7 Years

Author

Kim Norman has written several books for young readers, including Ten on the Sled, If It’s Snowy and You Know It, Clap Your Paws!, Puddle Pug, I Know a Wee Piggy, Crocodaddy, Jack of All Tails, and a few more. Kim spent much of her young days involved in theater, traveled along many-a-road due to being a Navy kid. She knows how to be silly. Her books bring smiles to the faces of those who read and hear these fun stories. Kim and her husband live in Smithfield, VA. Visit Kim @ kimnormanbooks.com.

Illustrator

Carolyn Conahan is the author and illustrator of several picture books, including The Twelve Days of Christmas in Oregon, The Prairie-Dog Prince, The Discontented Gopher, and The Twelve Days of Christmas Dogs. The Big Wish was awarded the 2011 Oregon Spirit Book Award for Picture Books by the Oregon Council of Teachers of English. Carolyn is also a staff illustrator of Cricket magazine. She lives in Portland, OR. You can find Carolyn @ carolyndigbyconahan.com.