In the Middle of the Night

In the Middle of the Night
Aileen Fisher ~ Adrienne Adams ~ Thomas Crowell, 1965

Every blue moon, my friend Gillian (my vintage book muse and author of the awesome estate sale diary, Thingummery) and I get to spend a weekend away from our kids thrifting, drinking wine and generally having much needed adult conversation. Plus, she lets me loot her kids' book collection which still holds a ton of treasures I don't have. Like this one.

A fabulous father/daughter story of what happens in the night.

Similiar somewhat to The Moon Jumpers or Switch on the Night, a girl wonders what goes on while she's fast asleep.

I always wondered
how it would be
in the middle of the night
away from the light
of the town
where only stars winked down.
I wished I could dally
along the brook
where it made a crook
through the valley,
and sniff,
and look,
and listen to the quiet
of night, standing by it.

She ends up taking a birthday walk with her father and a flashlight and experiences the world in a way that is completely new to her.

She spies butterflies and bugs and meets a skunk, an owl and a bat. She watches the moon shine on the surface of a brook and gets acquainted with the stars. A sleepy story full of wonder and love, all beautifully illustrated by the incomparable Mrs. Adams.

When I was linking to bios of Adams and Fisher, I saw that not only did they create a number of books together, but curiously, they died exactly one day apart of each other, back in 2002.

Interesting.

Also by:
The Day We Saw the Sun Come Up
Mr. Biddle and the Birds
A Woggle of Witches
The Wounded Duck
The Easter Egg Artists
Butterfly Time
Ponies of Mykillengi

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