The Duck Can't Sleep
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 1 Sept 2026
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- 105,00 kr
Publisher Description
Even the most restless reader will find peace and quiet in this breathtakingly illustrated book about the magic of nature, nighttime, and a duck who can’t sleep, based on a poem by the renowned E.B. White which was published in The New Yorker in 1928 and now appears for the first time in book form.
How surprised I was to see
A duck as wide awake as me.
Long past bedtime, two creatures sleeplessly wander around and around the reservoir in New York’s Central Park. What woes and wonders keep them awake so late?
Based on a poem originally published in The New Yorker by the legendary author E.B. White, and marvelously illustrated by two-time Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet, the book you hold is a love letter to nature in unlikely places, a testament to the power of imagination, and a balm to restless readers everywhere.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
E.B. White biographer Sweet (Some Writer!) illustrates this playfully pensive picture book based on a poem the late author published in the New Yorker in 1928. First-person couplets describe a midnight jaunt around a reservoir; while "I ambled round and round the fence," the speaker spies a duck swimming. Remarking with surprise at encountering "a duck as wide awake as me," the narrator muses about its motivations ("I wondered if he'd left his kind/ Because of something on his mind"). The somber, meditative tone quickly snaps back to one of amusement: "And though 'twas funny to suppose/ A little duck had secret woes...// I liked to think he swam the deep/ Because he simply could not sleep." Intricately collaged mixed-media illustrations build on the poem's mood with variegated blue shades and the occasional magenta or mustard pop, while collaged cut-paper snippets lend an elegant quality to the pages. Incorporating visual references to White's life and work, portraits of a pale-skinned walker and the paddling duck bring a fitting liveliness to this contemplative perambulation. Includes a foreword by the author's granddaughter, Martha White. Ages 4–8.
