Winner of the 2020 Kingdoms in the Wild Annual Poetry PrizeYves Olade on Dark When It Gets Dark- is about desire, about gentleness and grief. The collection also speaks to something of honesty, of truth, to the absence of duplicity. What would it mean for something to just be what it was, and nothing else? What if a storm is just a storm, and nothing else? What if it's finally dark when it gets dark?

A new story collection from “one of Europe’s most exciting writers” (New York Times Book Review) deftly evokes and explores the shifts that occur when the world grows dark. Snowed in at a remote artists’ residency in Vermont, Peter recalls another Christmas some thirty years earlier, when he met Marcia by chance on a trip to New York City. Only now, in this eerie, isolated place, does he begin to see the consequences of their brief affair through a series of connections. When Hubert asks Sabrina to model for a sculpture, she’s flattered and happy to help. But facing the finished product, looking at herself from previously hidden angles, disturbs her, and she becomes determined to follow her double after it’s sold to a collector. Uneasy in his own skin and with the humdrum life set out for him, David decides to rob a bank. He already has a mask for the purpose, but won’t be using it today. He’s heard that bank robbers often study the scene for weeks before they strike. So he’s started to lurk. We think we know our world, but then the familiar suddenly turns strange, and even frightening. In these powerfully affecting, minutely constructed stories, Peter Stamm illustrates how fragile our reality really is, how susceptible to tricks of the heart and mind.

It’s night. It’s dark. It’s time to go indoors—or is it? The outdoors at night can be a scary place, but this book will help young readers investigate the mysterious nature of night. To explore the night, it would be great to have eyes like an owl, the sensitive nose of a deer, and feet that can move as silently as a fox. Humans aren’t quite as good as nocturnal animals at navigating the darkness, but we can come surprisingly close. Our senses are much sharper than we realize, if we learn how to use them. Some scientists are even researching the sensory abilities of human hair! Each chapter of the book spotlights a different nocturnal creature. And while learning about animals’ adaptations for navigating the world of night, young readers discover their own surprising abilities. Years of teaching children in the outdoors has given the author, renowned environrmental educator Anita Sanchez, firsthand experience in introducing students to the terrors and joys of nature at night. She has led kids on night walks in a variety of habitats, including urban settings. Based on these experiences, the book describes night-time landscapes and the nocturnal animals that inhabit them, from desert coyotes to the frog chorus in a backyard pond—and a corner of the bathroom at midnight where a spider lurks. Readers will encounter: --The great horned owl, who can spot the twitch of a mouse’s tail in almost total darkness. --The Gila monster, who prowls the desert night using its tongue to locate prey. --The super-sensitive ears of a bullfrog (yes, frogs have ears!) --The delicate sense of touch of a spider, capturing its prey by feeling the slightest vibrations of its web. Sidebars called “You Can Do It!” offer fun and active ways for kids to explore their own senses—learning more about their own eyes, ears, nose, and senses of touch and taste. --While using crayons at night, can your eyes tell red from green? --Can you hold completely still for an entire minute, like a fox stalking its prey? --Could you follow the scent trail of an onion across the back yard? --Can you find sounds in the dark? Learn to use the “big ears” technique to locate sounds with accuracy.

Encouraging readers to dream the impossible, The Darkest Dark follows a young boy intrigued by space, but afraid of the dark, inspired by the childhood of real-life astronaut Chris Hadfield and brought to life by Terry and Eric Fan's lush, evocative illustrations. Chris loves rockets and planets and pretending he's a brave astronaut, exploring the universe. Only one problem. At night, Chris doesn't feel so brave. He's afraid of the dark. When he watches the groundbreaking moon landing on TV, Chris learns that space is the darkest dark there is, and through that lesson discovers that the dark isn't just scary, but beautiful and exciting—especially when you have big dreams to keep you company.

Lazlo is afraid of the dark. It hides in closets and sometimes sits behind the shower curtain, but mostly it lives in the basement. One night, when Lazlo’s nightlight burns out, the dark comes to visit him in his room. “Lazlo,” the Dark says. “I want to show you something.” And so Lazlo descends the basement stairs to face his fears and discover a few comforting facts about the mysterious presence with whom all children must learn to live. Beautifully rendered with sympathy and wit, this first collaboration between Snicket and Klassen offers a fresh take on a universal childhood experience.

The acclaimed novelist Samantha Hunt’s first collection of stories blends the literary and the fantastic and brings us characters on the verge—girls turning into women, women turning into deer, people doubling or becoming ghosts, and more

Ned the hedgehog is looking for a home in the cold, dark forest. He needs somewhere warm and cosy to sleep, but all he keeps finding are other creatures' homes: rabbits', foxes', owls', bats'. Will he ever find a snug safe bed of his own? This beautiful book is written and illustrated by award-winning author and illustrator Tim Hopgood.