We read House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Beth Krommes last night and this morning. Immediately the illustrations intrigued me and reminded me of art class and when I etched against special black paper to make a scrachboard drawing, then when I Googled the illustrator I found that that illustrations were indeed scratchboard illustrations.
Krommes received a BFA degree in painting from Syracuse University (I'm from the Syracuse area so I thought this was extra cool) and she has a background in wood engraving, a style which she has applied to her scratchboard illustrations.
The story with black and white and gold illustrations reads like a poem and I like how each line represents something on the page, but it's a fun hunt, like the line will read "On that bed waits a book."
And that illustration of the book on the bed will be in gold, along with the "lamp" and a few other objects that you can point out to your child as you read.
It's cool how everything mentioned in the book relates to eachother.
The lamp shines on the book, in the book the bird has a song about the "starry dark" which leads us to the moon shining and the sun shining on the moon in the solar system, back to the song in the dark which brings us to the light in the house.
I love the last page that reads "a home full of light."
Again, like so many wonderful children's books these illustrations should be prints for our babies walls, they are spectacular!
Isobella & Phoenix
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