Stories of the Night

Kitty Crowther author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Gecko Press

Published:1st Sep '18

Should be back in stock very soon

Stories of the Night cover

"Kitty Crowther is one of the greats of children’s illustration, and we have watched her at Gecko Press for years. The writing in Stories of the Night is extraordinary and the pictures glow." Julia Marshall, Publisher

A modern fairytale storybook set in the magical illustrated world of Astrid Lindgren Award recipient Kitty CrowtherTell me three goodnight stories, please, please, says Little Bear. Three!? says her mother. YesI gave you three good night kisses! First, Little Bear hears the story of the Night Guardian, who lives in the woods and makes sure all the animals go to bed. But who tells the Night Guardian when its bedtime? The second story is about the brave girl Zhora, who seeks the forests most delicious blackberries. In the third we meet Bo, the little man with the big overcoat, who finds it hard to sleep. Finally, Little Bear falls asleep, and there in bed beside her are her new storybook friends.

"A quirky charmer of a bedtime book. The eponymous stories are not books read to a child--rather, Crowther's Mother Bear tells Little Bear three stories orally. It's clear this is a familiar routine in their cozy home in the woods, since Little Bear asks for each story with descriptions that indicate familiarity: 'The one that says it's time to go to sleep, ' and 'The little girl with a sword who gets lost, ' and 'The one with the man in a big coat who never sleeps!' Mother Bear indulges each request, and the accompanying illustrations shift from depictions of the two of them in Little Bear's room to ones that present each story's world. While the palette is remarkably distinct, with a bright pink dominating the cover and highlighting interior spreads, the art style has a subtle, fantastic feel to it, as if it stepped out of Tove Jansson's work--or as if a Moomin could easily step into them. At the book's end, Little Bear imagines all the story characters coming to cuddle up in bed, and then Mother Bear goes to sit by the fire. In this closing spread she holds a book, its cover illustrated with those same characters, offering the reader a cozy metafictive conclusion. A visually distinct, original, pleasing bedtime book that has the feel of a classic."--starred, Kirkus Reviews --Journal

  • USBBY Outstanding International Books List

ISBN: 9781776571970

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

64 pages