House in the Night

Here is the key to the house.

The light is on in the house.

In that light, the bed dozes.

On that bed, a book waits...

This soothing poem lists items that remind us that night is coming soon. They simultaneously calm and intrigue. A key, a bed, a book, light, the moon... All this shows the child that there is a reliable order in the world, but it is full of beautiful mysteries.

About the Authors

Susan Marie Swanson is a poet, a Minnesota Book Award winner, and the author of many books, including "The First Thing My Mama Told Me," which was honored by the Charlotte Zolotow Award committee and recognized by the New York Times as a Best Illustrated Book. For twenty years, Swanson has been writing poetry with children as part of the "COMPAS: Writers and Artists in the Schools" program and the summer arts program at St. Paul Academy. She looks at the moon through the branches of old oaks surrounding the yellow house where the poet lives with her family in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Beth Krommes is an artist who has illustrated many award-winning books, including "Lamp, Ice, and a Ship Called Fish" (winner of the Golden Kite Award for illustrations and a position on the Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book list). Recently, she illustrated the book "Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow," which received the ASPCA Henry Bergh Award in both the "Poetry" and "Illustrations" categories. She draws, reads, and dreams in a tall house among pines and maples in Peterborough, New Hampshire, where she lives with her family.