The Napping House by Audrey and illustrated by Don Wood

The Napping House by Audrey Wood and illustrated by Don Wood is an award winning book, and I can see why it was given this prestigious title. It is a perfectly simple and has a unique story format. The story builds on the previous page, and it follows a distinct pattern. The text found on the first page continues to the following pages. It starts discussing how everyone in the napping house is sleeping. They all end up sleeping on top of each other, and the last part of the chain spurs a reaction that reaches the first sleeping individual. Once the story builds from one person sleeping to a whole group, the story takes a turn and they all wake up one by one.
I think this book is beautifully simple. The story line is easy to follow, and I think children of all ages would enjoy reading this book. There are some parts where it is a little comical. The adjectives used to describe the sleeping characters often relate to their personalities, and that was a nice element. As I previously mentioned, I liked the pattern/format of the book.
My absolute favorite part of this book was the illustrations. Don Wood did an excellent job. The entire book (with the exception of the first and last page) take place from the same view in the same room. Even though this is the case, I found a lot of differences from page to page. The facial expressions were life-like and looked as though a lot of time and effort was taken in creating each page. Even the granny's toes had toenails, the dog had textured fur, and outside the window it was raining. When everyone is sleeping, the illustrations use a lot of blues and greys. When everyone is awake, the colors become brighter and the rain outside the window has transformed into flowers.
I would recommend this book to others, and I think it deserved to be given an award as a best selling book.