George has a problem when he lays down to go to sleep, his mind wanders and he can’t fall asleep. He wishes for a nighttime friend. This is when a little mouse appears to show George all the nighttime friends who are awake in the house and George has a great time with them until he was tired enough to go to bed. This is a very sweet nighttime adventure story that all children who are afraid of the dark can relate to.

I find this story a little bit too sweet for my tastes, and would have liked some more strangeness and mischief from the nighttime friends. I also think I would have enjoyed it more had the nighttime felt more scary at first - I want to know more about why George is afraid! That being said, it's saved by the beautiful illustrations, which inject a lot of otherworldly fun.

Such a wonderful tale about a little boy who can not fall asleep and so he wishes for nighttime friends. I really loved the story as well as the beautiful illustrations. No spoilers but I will say all of his nighttime friends are lovable characters. I highly recommend this book for kids of all ages. Thanks to #netgalley for the advanced reader copy. I loved it.

Who isn’t afraid of the dark at some point in their lives? Most children seem to fear the shadows of the night, and George is one of them. But with a motley group of animal friends, he realises that the night time world has its own beauty and he can go to sleep safely.

The story will serve wonderfully as a bedtime read for little ones. The book isn’t designed to lull the children into sleep, but to reassure them that they can sleep without any fear in the dark.

The language used is quite simple, and the various animals provide ample opportunities for creative adults to narrate the book with gusto. Early readers will have fun listening to it.

I had mixed feelings about the illustrations. On the plus side, they are so vivid that they pop out of the page and add a wonderful jazz of colour to the story. They reminded me of old Russian fairy-tale books. On the other hand, George is sketched with a sullen expression on most of the pages. I can understand why he looks sad in the initial part of the book. But surely he should have looked happier as the story progressed and he realised that there’s nothing to be scared about!


Thank you, NetGalley and Princeton Architectural Press, for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful book about friendship and imagination. It was vivid with colorful illustration and very magical in its general aspect. I totally recommend it! One great children book!

Very pleasant to look at indeed, this shows a young lad unable to sleep from night frights. Luckily, he's not alone in the dark, and even if the characters he meets have their own things to be frightened about, friendship might just be the thing that they have in common to see them through the night. As opposed to books that are designed to send the young audience to sleep, this doesn't have a full-on lolling, lullaby atmosphere, but what it does have is a very gentle kind of marvel to portray, and it does it comfortably with some really nice incidental detail in the illustrations. Four stars plus.

George is having trouble sleeping and wishes he had a friend to keep him company at night. On an adventure through the house with animal friends, he becomes comforted before heading back to bed. This was a really cute bedtime book. My four year old loved it.