Bedtime stories about animals
48 stories of hares, hens, bears and more
Hedgehogs, hares, dormice, badgers, bears, hens and one very dignified pig. In these stories the animals run their own small worlds.
A sleepy dormouse is the guard on the valley night train in Dilly Takes Everyone Home Asleep, and wheels her sleeping passengers home on the luggage barrow. An old sheepdog counts the whole farm in for bed in Biscuit Counts Everyone In, with numbers that go one, two, both, several, plenty. In Gus Gives Away His Cave, a bear who has spent six weeks getting his cave just right for winter opens the door, one knock at a time, to neighbours the snow has left without a home.
Some are gentle and some are funny, and there’s a tortoise, a seal and a duck in here as well as all the fur and feathers.
The Littlest Wind in the Bears’ DenOn the first night of the long winter sleep, a baby wind blows into a bears’ den and whistles a tune with its last note missing, and nobody can sleep until it ends.
Ned Jumps for the SheepNed can’t fall asleep without his sheep, but tonight the sheep are too tired to jump, so he will have to jump the little fence himself.
Bun Says Goodnight to the MountainBun is the smallest, sleepiest dormouse in the valley, and this year she means to stay awake for the Echo Contest, where the mountain sends back every shout as a bead of coloured glass.
Duchess and the Runt CloudAfter five dry weeks, the largest pig on Hill Farm tiptoes up to the weather-mill at night to steal herself a rain cloud, and keeps bringing home the wrong one.
The Bear Who Counted SheepA very sleepy bear promises to count an old shepherd’s twelve sheep into the barn, but one of them, Lumpy, walks backwards.
Poppy’s Blanket Went to the BearOn washday the West Wind brings a small fox the wrong blanket, one the size of a meadow, so she and her dad go up the path by lantern to find her own.
Hattie and the Hundred and Twelve StepsHattie is a very old tortoise who lives at the bottom of a lighthouse, and she has spent a whole winter working out how to get up a hundred and twelve steps to watch the star come down.
The Hare Who Borrowed a ShellA hare so fast that he says everything twice has never seen a sunset all the way to the end, so he knocks on the slowest door in the meadow and asks to borrow some slowness.The Geese Bring the Colours HomeA hedgehog is throwing her very first supper party for thirty geese, but the geese are carrying all the meadow’s colours home, so how will they find her blue door in a meadow gone grey?
A Song the Size of a CrumbBaby Badger is wide awake, and every lullaby in the burrow is too big for him, so the smallest mouse at the table wonders whether a tiny voice might be just right.
Four Odd Socks for the Glass HillA fallen star has to be carried to the top of a hill made of glass, and the slowest donkey in the kingdom thinks she knows how to do it.
The Pot of SummerUnder a snowy meadow, a young mole keeps a whole summer in a teapot with no spout, and now he has to make it last through the longest night of the year.
Forty-Seven Jumps the Wrong WayWhen eighty-one-year-old Mabel falls asleep halfway through counting a sheep, he lands on her bedroom rug holding the top rail of the fence, and she has to count him home.
Dilly Takes Everyone Home AsleepDilly is a sleepy dormouse who works as guard on the valley night train, and she never wakes a passenger. Tonight she finds a sleeping bear cub with no label on his blanket, and nobody knows where he lives.
Nib and Mrs. Plank Go Down the RiverThe smallest mouse on the riverbank fetches a beaver’s lost spectacles, and in return she promises to carry him down the river to see the rainbow.
Ninety-Nine Steps for BertBert the tortoise is very slow, and the castle tower has ninety-nine steps, but he has a plan, a list and a strawberry cut into ninety-nine slices.
Pip and the Hatbox of YawnsA young hedgehog is left in charge of the meadow’s bedtime yawns for one night, and gives every last one of them to a very loud goose.
The Hedgehog and the Wind’s HatsA small, stubborn hedgehog whose ears always get cold climbs to the North Wind’s cave to win a hat that will stay on.
The Table That Counted GuestsA nervous badger wants every guest at his Sunday lunch to have a proper seat, but his kitchen table grows a new leaf for everyone who wants to come, and the whole wood wants to come.
Tuck Sings Pudding to SleepAn old dormouse with a voice like a creaky gate needs a winter bed, and the only one going is for whoever can sing a wide-awake badger cub to sleep.
The Foal Who Set the Last LanternFen the foal has legs that are always in a hurry, and tonight he wants to hang the very last lantern, filled with pink sunset from a jam jar that smells of plum.
Rooster Puts the Foal to BedThe rooster with the loudest voice on the farm promises a tired mother horse that he’ll get her wide-awake foal to sleep, but every loud idea he has just makes the foal want more.
One for Me, One for YouA small hare with a frying pan for a shovel digs one extra scoop of snow for his sleepy badger neighbour, and something starts to spread across the hill.
The Night the Wind Moved EverybodyA squirrel who keeps her nuts in neat rows paints DO NOT MOVE across her front door, on the one night of the year when a cheerful wind that can’t read carries everybody’s pantry away.
Milk Lends Her PurrAn old farm cat wakes up to find her famous purr missing (on her farm, a purr is a warm thing you can pick up and carry), so she asks every animal in the yard to help her look.
Four Hundred Dry CrossingsHattie the post-carrying hare has crossed the Long Marsh four hundred and ninety-three times without wetting her boots, and now she wants to know who sets the sunken stepping stones straight every night.