Who can tell what the trees say
when they whisper amongst themselves
at the end of the day?
Who can tell where the sun goes
when the curtains close
and the street lamps
shiver alive and glow?
Only the midnight creatures know
what makes the moonlit garden grow
tall shadows in the frosty light.
And only they keep watch with the stars
as colours dim to black and white…
This picture-book, illustrated by Wayne Anderson, which tells of a boy’s encounter with a family of badgers and their midnight world, was first published by Hutchinson Children’s Books in 1996 and reprinted in My Best Book of Animal Stories, Bodley Head, 2002.
