A Sleepless Night

by Micaela Chirif, Joaquín Camp (Illustrator), Jordan Landsman (Translator)

Overview

2024 Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book

2025 USBBY Outstanding International Books

Little Elisa can’t stop crying and no one knows why. After a sleepless night, it takes a grandmother’s touch—and an explosive fart—to bring much-needed relief.

One night, little Elisa begins to cry. At first her crying resembles a cat’s meow. But it soon grows so loud that the flowers wilt and the birds fly out the window. We move her bed so she can see the moon, we wrap her up warm, cool her down, and tie a red ribbon to her wrist. But nothing works. We all wonder: Why is she crying?

After a long sleepless night, it takes a grandmother’s touch to finally find out. Elisa lets out a fart that sounds like a plane taking off in the middle of the living room, nine blenders whirring at full power, twenty-seven moaning hair dryers . . . An irreverent story about the wind that passes through us all, A Sleepless Night shows that seemingly complicated problems can have simpler solutions than we think.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798893389050
Publisher:	Transit Books
Publication date:	10/01/2024
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 10.80(h) x (d)
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

About the Author

Micaela Chirif is an award-winning Peruvian author of children's books and poetry. She has a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, as well as a Master’s Degree in Books and Children’s Literature from The Autonomous University of Barcelona. Among other awards, her picture books have won the A la Orilla del Viento picture book competition from the Spanish-language publishing house Fondo de Cultura Económica and three of her picture books were White Ravens selections. Micaela’s books have been translated into Korean, Japanese, English, Portuguese, and French.

Joaquín Camp was born in Buenos Aires in 1987 and now lives in Madrid. He studied graphic design at Buenos Aires University, where he also taught illustration. As an illustrator, he has worked with publishing houses in Argentina, Spain, Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. His work was selected for Bologna Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition in 2019, and he won the International Illustrated Picture Book Contest for his book Anibal, the Ghost Dog in 2020.

Jordan Landsman was born in New York City. After graduating from Binghamton University, he spent several years living in Buenos Aires, where he co-created the BA Comedy Lab and taught literary workshops at Walrus Books.

Editorial Reviews

"Uproarious...This catalog of chaos highlights infants’ unexpected power to dominate everything around them—even the lives of strangers—and does so with good humor and respect for the wisdom of elders."—Publishers Weekly

"Both story and art reflect a passion for extremes, each equally ridiculous in their own ways... Come for the sobbing baby. Stay for the psychedelic cacophony of accompanying chaos."—Kirkus Reviews

"In this violent and absurdist Argentian import, young Elisa cries so loudly that her narrator sibling sounds like 'like a fire truck instead of a baby,' . . . the rich, humorous text is full of similes, and the illustrations appear to be rendered with markers, offering a layered and textured style. Blue nighttime hues contrast with brighter colors, centering action while exaggerated forms deepen the fantastical elements. Dazzling and dreamy."—Horn Book, starred review

From the Publisher

2024-08-03
A familiar tale is upended in a show of magical realism…and flatulence.

In this Argentinian import, readers meet Elisa, a diapered baby sporting a bowl haircut. One evening she begins to cry, slowly at first, then gaining in strength. Her parents try different tactics to quiet her but are unsuccessful, so the neighbors, unable to sleep from the racket, try their own techniques. They attempt everything from donning animal masks to dancing around in fruit costumes, all to no avail. As in any tall tale, the author employs exaggerated language; little Elisa’s cries are described in increasingly impossible (and impossibly funny) ways. Her roars are so powerful that characters in storybooks cry, too. “Her cry [is] so fierce it wither[s] the flowers and scare[s] away the little birds.” Finally, the next morning, Grandma stops by and immediately bicycles Elisa’s legs slowly. What happens next is a fart so colossal that it lifts the entire apartment building off its foundations and into space. While the fart is over-the-top, its presence is almost dwarfed by the sheer energy, color, and vibrancy of the accompanying surreal illustrations. Both story and art reflect a passion for extremes, each equally ridiculous in their own ways. Elisa and her family are pink-hued, while the neighbors vary in skin tone.

Come for the sobbing baby. Stay for the psychedelic cacophony of accompanying chaos.(Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews