The Napping House

This delightful cumulative tale from Audrey and Don Wood - a married couple and author/illustrator team whose many picture-book projects together have included Quick as a Cricket, Heckedy Peg, and the Caldecott Honor book King Bidgood's in the Bathtub - opens quietly, with an aerial view of a house standing peacefully in the rain: a house where everyone is sleeping. Zooming in on an upstairs bedroom, it shows Granny, grandchild, family dog, and pet cat all contently snoozing, until a little flea sets off a chain reaction, waking everyone up!

The Napping House is another one of those classic picture-books, more numerous than I'd like them to be, that I somehow missed in childhood, and have been meaning to pick up ever since. My online show more friends mostly seem to love it, and it's not difficult to see why! The cumulative narrative, and engaging oil illustrations will draw young readers in, and keep them involved. As for the adults, I can't speak for anyone else, but as someone who thinks longingly of sleep (of which I never seem to get enough), and considers a daytime nap the epitome of decadent indulgence, any book which celebrates this activity is a-okay with me! show less

This kind of flea-who-sucked-on-the-rat-who-bit-the-cat-who-scared-the-dog stuff is fine for a road trip song, but in book form it becomes rote quickly and I yearned for a twist.

The Napping House is a cozy and charming story about a house where everyone, from a grandma to a little flea, is taking a nap. The rhythmic text and playful illustrations make it fun to read aloud, and children will enjoy watching the sleepy pile grow. It’s a delightful book that celebrates rest, imagination, and the joy of storytelling.

This was a favorite of mine growing up. This book is about a special house in which everyone in it is napping, a grandmother, grandchild, dog, cat, mouse, and flea. Each member, big and small, falls asleep on each other in one big bed. But, the flea is awake and one after the other each sleeping animal and person is awoken. The illustrations in this book, along with the repetition, are what makes it so special. The story starts out with muted and dull colors, but as the story progresses and each house member is awoken, the colors begin to change and become bright. This was also linked to the fact that the house is first shown while it is raining and dark outside, and once the characters are awoken, it is sunny and light.

Wow, my kids loved this story. I think this is a timeless book and that my granddaughter will love it too. This story of folks napping has beautiful and humorous pictures. We had lots of fun finding the tiny flea on each page and the cottage setting is truly perfect.

The Napping House, by Audrey Wood, illustrations by Don Wood. Harcourt, 1984.

The Napping House is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Though the text and illustrations could conceivably stand alone, they almost work in counterpoint. With the text repeating to slow the reading, the cumulative aspect of the story causing pauses through its repetition, the illustrations provide an even incremental movement of action where the narrative offers only a tableau of before fleabite and after. The music of the work is a slow crecendo that adds an extra piece to the phrase: each addition is given its glory as the comic juxtaposition of alert, awake and practically flying creatures with contentedly sleeping other creatures. In the text, each being show more presented is given a quality of sleep – napping, dozing, snoring and then an action that erases that quality. Although the board book edition is not suitable for the format – being merely shrunk and not re-formatted to provide larger text or higher contrasting images, the larger work is of great quality. Like other picture books, calamity strikes but the final scene is one of bliss. Even when the bed is broken the granny is smiling and laughing. show less

This picture book makes a charming bedtime story. The Napping House is a cumulative tale about a boy, a grandma, and a whole lot of animals on a sleepy day. The story starts with "a house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping" and gradually adds sentence after sentence to introduce the bed, the grandma, the boy, the dog and the cat and the mouse. The pictures are blues and grays and other muted colors, as rain falls outside, creating an atmosphere suited to the story. Everyone is tired, and stumbles to the bed where they fall asleep, one at a time, and the text builds up with each picture. Until the flea comes along - a wakeful flea - and changes everything.

The flea bites the mouse, who wakes the cat, who wakes the dog, and so show more forth. As everyone awakens in reverse order the pages become saturated with more color, until the final layouts burst upon us with brilliant rainbow colors. The story remains repetitive, but the cumulative effect is gone and replaced with simple sentences, ending with that great line of "in the napping house, where no one now is sleeping." The story is quite simple, but when a picture book is simple and well written, with appealing illustrations that nicely support the text and provide extra detail to discover, then the author has created really quality children's literature. This story is a staple in the picture book world for a reason; it's a joy to read to our daughters. show less