Name: The napping house
ISBN: 0152026320

Audrey Wood

In this cumulative tale, a wakeful flea atop a number of sleeping creatures causes a commotion, with just one bite.

The napping house

This is one of Audrey and Don's best collaborations; the rhymes and pictures together are priceless. 

Karin

Sarah Sammis

Audrey Wood and Don Wood are best known for The Napping House. It was first released when my brother was four but I don't remember it being one of the books we read to him. I only just started hearing of it from my own kids as their preschool has a copy. For Sean and me, though, we know Audrey Wood (and her son, Bruce) for the Charley's Alphabet series (Alphabet Adventure, Alphabet Mystery and Alphabet Rescue). We know the husband and wife team best for Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear. Earlier this year a 25th anniversary edition was released. The copy though, that I read, was an original 1984 edition, well loved and wrinkled and crinkled, from the library.

The Napping House is written in the style of The House That Jack Built. It's a progressive tale where one thing builds upon another to a breaking point and then unravels itself to similar but not identical to the beginning. Here the thing in question is a napping grandmother who has her bed invaded by a large number of napping creatures (grandchildren, dog, cat, and so forth). Of course a bed can only hold so much and part of the fun is seeing just how full the bed can get before it breaks.

The illustrations are probably the book's best asset. The story is fairy typical of that type of picture book. That form of story telling has been done to death and in all fairness to The Napping House many of them came after it was published. Still, though, I much prefer the books I listed in my introduction.