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!
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.
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
