Bad Moon Rising? The Full Moon at the Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood

THERE IS A HOUSE,
A FULL MOON HOUSE,
WHERE EVERYONE IS RESTLESS.

Called the lunatic moon by the ancients, the rise of the full moon has a certain power in its white light--the power to make living things wakeful and--restless.

There is a wide-awake bed in that house, its pillows still plumped from the morning, its coverlet unturned, as Granny and her gold-striped cat gaze out the window at the moonrise.

A boy with carroty curls reaches under the chair for his own silver orb, his ball.

AND WITH THAT GRANNY
THERE IS A CHILD,
A FIDGETY CHILD
WITH A SLEEPLESS GRANNY
IN A WIDE-AWAKE BED.

A shaggy white dog rises from his rug and joins the ball game, while the cat glares at the two and Granny stretches and and stares wide-eyed at the ceiling. Even a little grey mouse appears on the wash stand and peers at something that has just landed on the bottom window sash.

The boy mounts the foot of the bed and tosses the ball to the dog, as Granny despairs of sleep and the cat stalks the mouse.

Granny covers her head as the prowling cat leaps for the wary mouse, who jumps for the windowsill, as the dog dives for the ball.

The bed is rumpled. The mouse is harried by the cat, and as the full moon rides high...

EVERYONE IS RESTLESS.
UNTIL...

A CHIRPING CRICKET
SINGS HIS ....
FULL MOON SONG...

and soon there's a soothed mouse, a calm cat and a drowsy dog, a snugly child and a sleepytime story from Granny...

IN THE FULL-MOON HOUSE

WHERE NO ONE NOW IS RESTLESS.

Twenty-six years after their award-winning classic The Napping House was published Author and illustrator pair Audrey and Don Wood have added a companion cumulative bedtime story, just published on September 1, The Full Moon at the Napping House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) is riding high in the firmament of notable stories for young children, this one a perfect bedtime story to bring the stories full circle. Don Wood's lovely moon-washed illustrations in a subdued palette of blues and lavenders repeat the full-moon's curve in the bed, the curled-up dog and cat and the mirror as Granny and child cuddle for the last page of the story and a welcome good night. A perfect sequel to a classic early childhood tale, together two stories which no child should miss.