#441 of 1001 · October 15, 2021

Each time I read @audreywoodauthor and Don Wood’s The Napping House, I’m struck by the skillful craftsmanship of the married co-creators’ verbal and visual storytelling. Audrey Wood’s delightfully engaging text emulates the form of a cumulative nursery rhyme, each page introducing a new object or character—first the eponymous napping house itself, then a cozy bed, then a snoring granny, then a dreaming child, then a dozing dog, then a snoozing cat, then a slumbering mouse. Each one climbs on top of the last, creating a large, somnolent pile. Finally, a wakeful flea (which sharp-eyed readers may spot in advance) bites the mouse, setting off a raucous chain reaction in which each character jostles, disturbs, or agitates the one below and they all go flying giddily around the room. Don Wood’s art brilliantly draws form from the content of the writing. The bedroom starts out in a muted palate of soft blues as the rain patters down outside the window, but gradually shifts to bright, saturated yellows as the characters wake up and sunlight streams in. Mirroring the shift in weather, the inanimate objects take on a certain personality, wooden chair and bed drooping with sleepy energy. Moreover, with each page turn the perspective of the illustrations subtly shifts upward from a side view of the room, to almost a bird’s-eye view at the moment of the flea’s climactic bite, and then back again. Here is a book perfect for going to sleep with, for waking up to, and for all moments in between. #nap #house #bed #granny #child #dog #cat #mouse #rain #sun #rainbow #book #books #childrensbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks