Rabbit realises that he doesn’t have to go to bed until it is dark. If it never gets dark, he won’t ever have to go to bed. It is easy to lure the Dark into the biscuit tin but the consequences aren’t what Rabbit expected. The pictures and text together build a charming allegory about the importance of thinking beyond our immediate pleasures.
Rabbit doesn't want to go to bed, so he decides to kidnap The Dark and trap it in a biscuit tin so he can stay up all night long. But The Dark reminds Rabbit of all the good things that he does. What about all the nocturnal animals, he asks . . . and surely you can't have a yummy breakfast of toast and honey and fresh orange juice unless you've been to bed? But the BEST thing about The Dark, of course, is reading a really good bedtime story . . .
“Ever original […] a clever twist on the bedtime tale.” – Fiona Noble, The Bookseller
“A tale of avoiding bedtime that may leave 3- to 7-year-olds with a new appreciation for the positive side of lights-out.” – Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Wall Street Journal (US)
“Superbly told and beautifully illustrated to show light and dark.” – Parents in Touch
“It is gentle, perfectly pitched, with a delightful and effective pop-up effect.” – Library Mice (blog)
“This sweetly told story is brilliant in sharing the differences between day night with young ones.” – Mamma Filz (blog)
“This is a brilliant bedtime story, especially for those who might need a gentle reminder that the dark isn’t anything to be scared of.” – Carousel
Author
About Nicola O'Byrne
When Nicola was 5 years old her parents banned Saturday morning television, and she has been drawing ever since. Nicola grew up in Singapore surrounded by the vibrant colours of the tropics and had not even heard of illustration as a career before she discovered the Illustration course at Edinburgh College of Art. Having graduated from ECA, Nicola has now completed a Masters in Printmaking from Camberwell College of Art, as well as pursuing a career in children's book illustration. She gets most of her ideas for children's books when she should be working on something else, and bases all of her characters on people she knows.
