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May/June 2001

THE NAPPING HOUSE
Audrey Wood and Don Wood (illustrator)
New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1984
32 pages, hardcover, $16
ISBN: 0-15-256708-9


Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg

In this house, granny is dozing on her bed, a child in a chair, a dog on the floor, a cat in its basket, and if you look closely, a mouse on the edge of the mirror. The child curls up with granny. The dog follows, and as does the cat and then the mouse.

But someone in the room is still awake: a flea bites the mouse who scares the cat who claws the dog.... The resulting tumult rouses everyone and breaks the bed.

The drawings are wonderfully detailed. The colors brighten from the haze of sleep to a sunshine-filled waking day. The rhythms and repetitions, and the humorous portrayals of all the sleepers in different positions as events unfold page by page have made this enchanting tale a perennial favorite with pre-schoolers and their parents. It's also available as a board book for new babies.

 


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