"Who has woken the air? Was it the tree? Was it the rabbit?
Was it the dog? Was it the cat? Was it you?"
Decades ago Mark McLeod talked about the need for quiet books and inspired by this idea I created a Pinterest collection. Now I have discovered On a Summer Night and it needs to go to the top of this list.
This picture book comes from the US but the setting is universal. It is a very hot summer night.
"the world is still. Even the crickets think it is too hot to sing."
A little girl wakes up and hears a noise. This page turn will jolt you. It has no illustration - it is all dark brown with a tiny section of cream in the corner. Watch this corner because over the coming pages this slither of light will grow.
She investigates the noise and she finds her cat stretched out on the cool surface of the kitchen table. The cat wakes up with a start having also heard a noise from outside.
"Then you step out to the yard, where the dew tips blades of grass and silvers your toes."
Just pause for a moment and think about this sentence.
And so, the nighttime exploration continues.
Publisher blurb: On a summer night, the world is still. Even the crickets think it’s too hot to sing. But all at once, a girl wakes. In the kitchen, the cat rolls onto its soft paws. A neighbor’s small white dog yaps, a brown rabbit peeks from a hedge, and the leaves of a cherry tree begin to stir in the breeze. Readers witness and wonder: Who has woken them all? In this soothing bedtime story, the quiet of a warm summer night is brought to vivid, magical life with the soft steps of bare feet, the padding of paws, and the bright, golden light of the moon. One by one, each creature is roused and then gently returned to sleep in a lovely and lyrical exploration of wakefulness, restfulness, and the mysterious calm of the night.
Now for the bad news. I have seen this book listed between AUS$35 to AUS$50! So sadly this might be a book you look for in your local public library. You can see inside this book here.
I have been a fan of Kenard Pak for many years - ever since my friend who is a Teacher-Librarian introduced me to his work. The art in this book is very different from his usual style - it has been created digitally and usually that form does not appeal to me but for this book it really works to create the night time atmosphere. Here is his web page.
US author Deborah Hopkinson is the award-winning author of seventy books for young readers including picture books, middle grade historical fiction, Little Golden Book biographies, and long form nonfiction. Her titles have won the Oregon Book Award, the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Green Earth Environmental Award. You can see other picture books by Deborah Hopkinson here. I previously talked about these two:
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