Celebrate Book Week 2009

with Susan Marie Swanson
the author of The House In The Night, The 2009 Caldecott Award Book

October 13 - October 15, 2009

Susan Marie Swanson

Award-winning author Susan Marie Swanson grew up in a small town on the outskirts of Chicago where she happily spent her time at the local library and bookstore, fortified by words and the really good sweet rolls available at a nearby bakery. It's not too surprising to learn that she became a writer at an early age; her first published poem appeared in the local newspaper when she was ten. Fortunately for her readers, she became a children's book author when she became a mother. She's the kind of writer whose poetry and poetic picture books, with their insights and fresh yet familiar topics, are lovingly read over and over again. Susan Marie has worked with students through the COMPAS Writers and Artists in the Schools program for more than 25 years, inspiring children to record their own voices and stories. After listening to so many children for so many years, she knows just how they speak and how to speak to them, telling them just what they want to hear in each warm-hearted book she creates.

Awards and Honors
Caldecott Medal, 2009; Minnesota Book Award, 2009; Junior Library Guild Premiere Selection; Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Books; Publishers Weekly Best Books; Parents' Choice; New York Public Library Titles for Reading and Sharing; AARP Book for Grandparents; starred reviews in Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal; Booklist Top of the List 2008.

The House in the Night illustrated by Beth Krommes Houghton Mifflin, 2008 ages 2 to 8, ISBN 978-061886244 Here is the key to the house. In the house burns a light. In that light rests a bed. On that bed waits a book...

A spare, patterned text and glowing pictures explore the origins of light that make a house a home. Naming nighttime things that are both comforting and intriguing—a key, a bed, the moon—this timeless book illuminates a reassuring order to the universe.

Book Week is supported by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction of the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), University of Minnesota; by the generous contributions of Ms. Ruth Mitchell and other CEHD alumni; The Red Balloon Bookshop; and by the Children's Literature Research Collections, Andersen Library, University of Minnesota. Books will be available for purchase and signing by the author courtesy of The Red Balloon Bookshop.