Good Night, Sleep Tight - Tapa dura

"There was once a girl who had a large family." So begins this story of a girl who spends her day mothering her toys - Lion, Frog, Cat and Mary-Ann. When evening comes, she tucks them up in bed next to her and tells them to "sleep tight". But they don't want to sleep. They want to take her on adventures - one for each of them. Frog is first. He takes her diving down into the pond, after which she has a wonderfully noisy time with Lion, followed by a surprising walk in the dark with Cat. Finally she goes with Mary-Ann to a party, where she dances, has tea and makes lots of friends. At last, back in bed and exhausted, she orders her toys to sleep. If they're very good, though, she says they just might have some more adventures another time. Penelope Lively won the 1987 Booker Prize for her novel "Moon Tiger", having been shortlisted twice previously for the "Road to Lichfield" and "According to Mark". Her children's story "The Ghost of Thomas Kempe" was awarded the 1973 Carnegie Medal and "A Stitch in Time" won the 1976 Whitbread Children's Novel Award. Her first picture book, "The Cat, the Crow and the Banyan Tree", was published in 1984. Penelope is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was made an OBE in 1989. Adriano Gon has illustrated a number of children's books, including Dick King-Smith's "Blessu and Dumpling" and the Walker title "Here Comes Tod!" (by Philippa Pearce).