Description

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Midnight. Stars speckle the darkness with bits of light.   

A cockroach skitters across the kitchen floor to snatch a forgotten breadcrumb. In the backyard, a spider weaves an intricate design on the fence. Winged insects dance and flicker in the porch light.   

Day and night, small creatures are busy working, eating, hunting, hiding.

This nonfiction picture book reveals the hidden lives of insects and other small creatures from one midnight to the next. The world may appear to be sleeping in the dead of night, but it is not. As moonflowers open and stars shine, nature goes about her business. The world never sleeps. 

Natalie Rompella’s lyrical text is vividly complemented by Carol Schwartz’s watercolors. A cat roams through the illustrations—silent witness, in the house and in the yard, to the myriad lives of night and day. A sense of mystery pervades all—even the backmatter natural-history portraits of the animals met in the book. This nature book invites children into a parallel universe, one that teems with life while they sleep.

Lexile Level 700; F&P Level O

About the Author

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NATALIE ROMPELLA, a former museum educator and elementary and middle school teacher, is the author of more than forty books and educational guides for young readers and the winner of a Work-in-Progress grant from the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She is a longtime insect aficionado whose books include Don’t Squash That Bug!: The Curious Kid’s Guide to Insects (2007).

CAROL SCHWARTZ has illustrated more than 50 picture books, including My Busy Green Garden, which Kirkus called “a lovely literary and artistic rendering.” Her other books include Sea Squares (an Outstanding Science Trade Book and Children’s Choice award winner), The Maiden of Northland (an Aesop Accolade List book), and Thinking about Ants (an Outstanding Science Trade Book). Carol taught illustration at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and has shared her passion for illustrating at the hundreds of elementary schools, libraries, conferences, and colleges she has visited.

Praise For…

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The World Never Sleeps is a children's picture book that depicts the fascinating lives of insects and other creatures, who remain busy even after the sun sets. From hardworking, web-weaving spiders to skittering cockroaches and mayflies who often live for only one day as an adult, these tiny lives form an intricate part of the environmental balance - and the world never sleeps. Beautiful color illustrations and some supplementary information about common creatures round out this wonderful and educational book, perfect for reading aloud to children right before bedtime.

— Midwest Review of Books