The Rabbit, the Dark, and the Cookie Tin

by Nicola O'Byrne, Nicola O'Byrne (Illustrator)

Overview

Rabbit doesn't want to go to bed, so he decides to kidnap The Dark and trap it in a cookie tin so he can stay up all night long. But then The Dark reminds Rabbit of all the good things that darkness brings. What about all the nocturnal animals? 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!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536205763
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/12/2019
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	556,083
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 11.63(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Nicola O'Byrne was banned from watching Saturday morning television by her parents, and she has been drawing ever since. She grew up in Singapore surrounded by the vibrant colors of the tropics. She gets most of her ideas for children’s books when she should be working on something else, and she bases all of her characters on people she knows. She lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

A rabbit who is not ready to go to sleep traps The Dark in a cookie tin...Similarly resistant young children will be lulled by a subtly soothing tone that even the outsized pop-up doesn't disturb.
—Kirkus Reviews

When it gets dark, little ones have to go to sleep. That’s the normal arrangement, anyway, vexing as it may be to some. But what if it can’t get dark? Hah, what then? Nicola O’Byrne plays with this thought experiment in “The Rabbit, the Dark, and the Cookie Tin”, a tale of avoiding bedtime that may leave 3- to 7-year-olds with a new appreciation for the positive side of lights-out.
—The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

07/26/2019

PreS-Gr 2-In order to stave off bedtime and the encroaching night, a not-so-sleepy little rabbit lures The Dark into a cookie tin and snaps the lid closed. The eponymous Dark chastises Rabbit for his trickery and reminds him of all the good things that happen in the dark, such as nocturnal animals coming out to play and being able to have breakfast in the morning. Ultimately Rabbit realizes there are many great things about the night, including bedtime stories. The animal characters, including foxes, bats, owls, and especially Rabbit, are sweet and expressive. The mixed-media illustrations make good use of light and deeply saturated colors to provide a dulcet, sage quality to the formless Dark, without being overly foreboding. Perhaps the most striking feature of the design is when the story culminates with the cookie tin unfolding into a large pop-out starscape, which takes a bit of dexterity to unfold. In this way, Rabbit's orderly world of light, portrayed through ample white space, striped patterns, and even straight rows of carrots, is juxtaposed with the beautiful asymmetry and rich blues of nighttime. VERDICT A clever bedtime read-aloud that includes enough visual interest and engaging vocabulary for slightly older children as well sleepy preschoolers.-Kelly Topita, Anne Arundel County Public Library, MD

School Library Journal

2019-03-03

A rabbit who is not ready to go to sleep traps The Dark in a cookie tin.

The Dark (joined by a chorus of bats, owls, and baby foxes) quietly remonstrates from within the cookie tin, explaining that certain animals are awake at night and also that without bedtime there can be no breakfast. Gradually, Rabbit's grumpy resistance fades…then vanishes when he sees his prized carrots wilting in the constant daytime heat. At last he opens the tin—a flap that lifts to unfold a big, spectacular starry sky—and: " ‘WOW!' said Rabbit. ‘The Dark can be so beautiful.' " Off goes Rabbit to bed, and barely has The Dark begun to murmur a bedtime story before he's snoozing away. O'Byrne endows her anthropomorphic bunny with particularly expressive ears, adds several distressed but cute creatures, and depicts The Dark as a nebulous, unthreatening patch of blackness with no feature except a hand reaching into the tin for an offered cookie. The idea isn't exactly original, but the strong connections between the narrative and the pictures give this a leg up over Anthony Pearson and Bonnie Leick's similarly themed Baby Bear Eats the Night (2012), while Jöns Mellgren's Elsa and the Night (2014) shares the conceit (and even the tin) but goes in a different, deeper emotional direction.

Similarly resistant young children will be lulled by a subtly soothing tone that even the outsized pop-up doesn't disturb. (Pop-up/picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews