Top Children Books: The Napping House

Everyone knows the cumulative rhyme “This Is the House That Jack Built,” but The Napping House (1984) is close on its heels in the race for posterity: “And on that granny / there is a child / a dreaming child / on a snoring granny / on a cozy bed / in a napping house, / where everyone is sleeping.” Included in the napping house menagerie is a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering mouse, and a wakeful flea who ends up toppling the whole sleep heap with one chomp! Don Wood’s delightfully detailed comical illustrations are bathed in moonlight blues until the sun comes up, then all is color and rainbows and a very awake household.

Awards: ALA Notable Children’s Book, New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year, Golden Kite Award winner, California Young Reader Medal winner, Booklist Editors’ Choice

There is a house,
a napping house,
where everyone is sleeping.

"Everyone," in this case is a snoring granny, a dreaming child, a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering mouse... and a wakeful flea! Uh-oh. Looks like the napping house won't be napping for long. With their very own brand of humor, Audrey Wood and Don Wood create an appealing bedtime book compatible with Margaret Wise Brown's classic Goodnight Moon. This small, square board book, with its rhythmic, repetitive text and witty pictures in shades of ever-brightening blues and greens (as the night turns to day), is sure to be a winner with preschool insomniacs. The sleepy household congregates on Granny's bed, slowly building a very relaxed pile of bodies in shifting positions. Young readers will enjoy tracking the critters as they make their way, one by one, to the bed--and then guessing what will happen when the wakeful flea joins the heap. Be sure to look for this author-illustrator team's other hilarious collaborative efforts, including Piggies and Silly Sally. (Baby to preschool) --Emilie Coulter

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