Day 17: The Napping House

Of all the titles in our current collection at the moment, this is the one that most appeals to me today.  After being up with my youngest at 12, 2, 4, and 6am, I would love for our house to be a napping house today!  Alas, I can count on one hand the number of times I have ever managed to get both of my children to nap at the same time, so we'll have to settle for reading this wonderful story a few times today, instead.  We checked this out of the library recently at the suggestion of our good friend (and children's librarian) Melinda, and are so happy we did!   Thanks, Melinda!  Don and Audrey Wood tell the story of the napping house beautifully, from the delightfully repetitive and cumulative text to the detailed, expressive illustrations.  My son loves watching everyone pile up on the Granny's bed, only to have a wakeful flea set off a hilarious chain reaction, and I just love watching his smile grow bigger and bigger until the Granny finally breaks the bed at the end.   After reading this for the first time, he immediately wanted to read it again, and now he loves looking for the slight changes in imagery and reciting what is going to happen next. I also love the way the book starts out with everyone napping the rainy day away (who doesn't love to do that?) and the subtle way in which the light in the illustrations gently changes from gray and dreary to warm and sunny with each turn of the page.  The rhythm and silliness of this story make it wonderfully engaging for little ones, and it is sure to be one that we read over and over again.  If I'm really lucky, maybe we'll even get to read it before a nice long family nap sometime.