Summertime means lots of things at our house: lazy mornings, corn on the cob, afternoons at the pool, ice cream cones, Saturdays spent at the beach with the cousins, the county fair, going to bed a bit later than usual.. and, of course, trips to the library.
I was first introduced to Don and Audrey Wood when C received The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear as a birthday present several years ago. So when I saw The Napping House at the library, I added it to our pile without even opening it up. I do this a lot at the library, find an author I like and then search through the stacks to see how many other books they've written. I figure if I love one book, the other books can't be half bad.
The Napping House tells the story of "a napping house, where everyone is sleeping". First the snoring granny, then a dreaming child, and on and on with a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering mouse... and finally a wakeful flea, all in a pile on grandmother's bed.
When the flea decides to bite the mouse, which scratches the cat, which claws the dog.. and so on and so on, needless to say the nap is soon over.
I read in an interview with Audrey Wood that this book was based on the napping habits of their son Bruce, who refused to nap at home, but would nap at his granny's house where everything was quiet. "We learned by trial and error that the only way we could get him to sleep was to walk him the two blocks to his granny’s house. Everything there was restful and calm, and granny (my mother) always loved to take an afternoon nap. She owned a fluffy dog, and when granny, the dog, and Bruce settled into her cozy bed, everyone was dreaming in minutes. This became a daily ritual, and we began to refer to my mother’s home as "the napping house." That’s how the book was born."