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I Don't Want to Go to Bed
Larry never wants to sleep, but then he looks through his neighbor's glasses and sees animal children going to bed. That night, Larry's mother is in for a surprise.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1947
56 people want to read
About the author
Astrid Lindgren
1,223 books3,852 followersAstrid Anna Emilia Lindgren, née Ericsson, (1907 - 2002) was a Swedish children's book author and screenwriter, whose many titles were translated into 85 languages and published in more than 100 countries. She has sold roughly 165 million copies worldwide. Today, she is most remembered for writing the Pippi Longstocking books, as well as the Karlsson-on-the-Roof book series.
Awards:
Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing (1958)
Awards:
Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing (1958)
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 28, 2021
This (at least in the Swedish original) is my all-time favourite going-to-bed story for kids. It is perfectly written on two levels, so it is just as amusing for the adult as the child... Astrid Lindgren's wonderfully dry sense of humour suffuses the whole book. If you have a child who won't go to bed in the evening, you are OBLIGED to get this!
_____________________
I've just been reading this aloud, in impromptu translation, to 5 year old Samuel and 3 year old Hannah. The bit they enjoyed most was where the rabbits have been left to go to bed all on their own. We spent some time examining the picture of them in the bathroom. "He's sitting on his potty... he's jumped in the bath with his pyjamas still on... he's left the tube of toothpaste on the floor... he's put the roll of toilet paper in that puddle of water... WHAT A MESS!!!"
One of the rabbits sneaks off to the bedroom to lie down for a moment. "I'm going to stay up for ages... and ages... and ages..." he yawns. A moment later, he's asleep. This kids liked the irony: they've been there.
_____________________
I've done a translation for the kids. Here it is... though I'm afraid that my language isn't a patch on Lindgren's brilliant original, and you're also missing Ilon Wiklund's illustrations. I strongly recommend buying a copy!
----------------------------
"I don't want to go to bed!!"
Who's that screaming? It's Lasse. He's five years old, and he never wants to go to bed, no way!
When his mum tells him: "Lasse sweetie, it's bedtime," Lasse says: "I'm just going to build a garage for my car first" or "I'm just going to draw something first". And then he's just going to jump off the table four times, and poke the hole in his sock to see if it gets any bigger. It does! Then he's just going to go and hide behind the rocking chair, so mum can't find him.
In the end, mum gets so tired of "I'm just going to" that she grabs Lasse and takes off his clothes and puts him in his bed. And Lasse keeps screaming "I DON'T WANT TO GO TO BED!!"
----------------------------
There's an old lady who lives in the flat upstairs. She's called Aunt Lotten. She can hear when Lasse starts screaming in the evenings.
Lasse likes Aunt Lotten. He often goes upstairs to visit her. One day, he's sitting in Tant Lotten's nice flat, and Tant Lotten asks him "Would you like to try putting on my glasses?"
"Yes please!" says Lasse. He's never tried wearing glasses before.
----------------------------
These are the world's most amazing glasses. You can see hundreds of miles with them. All the way to the big woods. Lasse looks and looks.
"What can you see?" asks Aunt Lotten.
"I can see a bear!" says Lasse. "A little bear cub! And his mum too!"
"What's the bear doing?" asks Aunt Lotten. "He's sitting in his bed," says Lasse. "Is he screaming?" asks Aunt Lotten. "Uh, no," says Lasse, and goes just a little bit red.
No indeed, Teddy isn't screaming. He's eating porridge with honey and looks perfectly content.
----------------------------
He's had such a nice day in the woods. He played with another bear cub, called Bruno. Teddy and Bruno went down to the creek to throw stones. They thought they'd see who could throw furthest. They could both throw a really, really long way. And it was so much fun to hear the stones fall in the water! Then Nalle somehow managed to fall in the creek himself. And seeing that he was already completely wet, he thought he might as well splash around a bit. He splashed around for quite a while and sprayed water all over Bruno.
"I wish I'd fallen in too!" said Bruno. But luckily, that's just what he did.
Tomorrow, Teddy thinks he's going to go back down to the creek and splash around some more. If his shoes and socks have dried out by then, anyway.
----------------------------
Lasse looks in another direction. He sees the rabbits' bedroom.
The little rabbits are about to go to bed. They're alone at home. Their mum has gone out to a party. It's so much fun to go to bed all on their own!
"Now make sure you go to bed early and don't lie awake talking," said Mrs Rabbit before she left.
But the rabbits aren't in a hurry. First they think they'll have a pillow fight. (Mrs Rabbit has put numbers on all their pillows, because otherwise they can't remember which bed they're supposed to sleep in. Everyone wants to sleep in the middle). They've just started the pillow fight, and one rabbit says: "Hey, we forgot to go and wash!"
----------------------------
They rush off to the bathroom and fight to see who's going to get there first. But one of the rabbits is feeling a bit sleepy and thinks he'll lie down for a minute in his bed.
"We're going to stay up for ages... and ages... and ages" he yawns. And suddenly he's asleep.
----------------------------
"These glasses are really good," says Lasse.
"See if you can find anyone else who's asleep," says Aunt Lotten.
Lasse can. He sees five little baby birds. They're sleeping so soundly that Lasse can almost hear them snoring. But one of them isn't quite asleep yet. He's called Nosse. Nosse's so tired! He's spent all day learning to fly. His brothers and sisters already know how to do it, and Nosse can too, sort of. But when he said: "I flapped my wings five times!" his brother just laughed and said "Ha! Ha! I saw you had one foot on the ground!"
So Nosse thinks he's going to get up before the others tomorrow morning, so he can start practising early.
----------------------------
The Squirrel family have three children. Their names are Kalle, Kurre and Kajsa. Their dad is very bad tempered.
"Get those damn kids into bed so I can read the newspaper without hearing them running around all the time," he says to Mrs Squirrel. And Mrs Squirrel tells the children that whoever's in bed first is going to get a sweet.
----------------------------
"Kajsa's going to be first," says Kalle. "She always is."
He's right. Kajsa crawls into the middle bunk and sucks her sweet until she goes to sleep.
"You don't have to slurp like that," says Kalle. "I know you've got a sweet anyway."
Kurre pulls down the blind and gets into bed too. He's in a terrible mood. He wishes he'd also got a sweet.
"You know it's not healthy to eat sweets after you've brushed your teeth," he tells Kajsa.
"I don't care," says Kajsa.
Kalle sneaks out of bed again to play with his toy train. Dad's still reading the paper so he doesn't notice. Kalle's built the train himself, and it's really good. Kalle puts it next to his bed when he finally thinks he'll go to sleep. He's planning to build, like, a thousand of these trains. Then he'll sell them all and become a very wealthy young squirrel.
----------------------------
It's incredible what Aunt Lotta's glasses can do. You see right through the floor with them. Mrs Mouse lives down there under the ground. Just now she's very angry.
"What do you think you're doing, coming home this late?!" she yells at poor Kasper. He's coming down the stairs and looks quite scared.
"Why didn't you come home in time for dinner?" asks Mrs Mouse. "What have you been doing?"
"I was playing out in the yard..." says Kasper.
"Again!" says Mrs Mouse. "Eat your food and then go straight to bed. The other children are already asleep."
But Kasper can see that his sister Nilla is still awake. She pokes her head out and looks so pleased when she sees Mrs Mouse telling him off.
"I never go out and play in the yard at night," says Nilla.
Just you wait, thinks Kasper. As soon as I'm in bed, I'm going to pull your tail.
----------------------------
"Now you go home and go to bed too," says Aunt Lotten to Lasse. "You see that all the other children have to go to bed at night."
Lasse takes off his glasses. He nods to Aunt Lotten. He doesn't say a word.
When he gets back to his room, he takes off his clothes so quietly that his mum doesn't hear a thing. He puts them on a chair. He goes to the bathroom, and brushes his teeth, and washes his face properly. Then he gets into bed.
He thinks of all the other children who are sleeping right now. Teddy Bear, and the little rabbits, and Nosse the bird, and Kalle Squirrel, and Kasper Mouse.
A bit later, his mum comes in to tell him that Lasse, I'm sorry but you must go to bed. She's so surprised when she sees he's already asleep! She can hardly believe it's true.
_____________________
I've just been reading this aloud, in impromptu translation, to 5 year old Samuel and 3 year old Hannah. The bit they enjoyed most was where the rabbits have been left to go to bed all on their own. We spent some time examining the picture of them in the bathroom. "He's sitting on his potty... he's jumped in the bath with his pyjamas still on... he's left the tube of toothpaste on the floor... he's put the roll of toilet paper in that puddle of water... WHAT A MESS!!!"
One of the rabbits sneaks off to the bedroom to lie down for a moment. "I'm going to stay up for ages... and ages... and ages..." he yawns. A moment later, he's asleep. This kids liked the irony: they've been there.
_____________________
I've done a translation for the kids. Here it is... though I'm afraid that my language isn't a patch on Lindgren's brilliant original, and you're also missing Ilon Wiklund's illustrations. I strongly recommend buying a copy!
----------------------------
"I don't want to go to bed!!"
Who's that screaming? It's Lasse. He's five years old, and he never wants to go to bed, no way!
When his mum tells him: "Lasse sweetie, it's bedtime," Lasse says: "I'm just going to build a garage for my car first" or "I'm just going to draw something first". And then he's just going to jump off the table four times, and poke the hole in his sock to see if it gets any bigger. It does! Then he's just going to go and hide behind the rocking chair, so mum can't find him.
In the end, mum gets so tired of "I'm just going to" that she grabs Lasse and takes off his clothes and puts him in his bed. And Lasse keeps screaming "I DON'T WANT TO GO TO BED!!"
----------------------------
There's an old lady who lives in the flat upstairs. She's called Aunt Lotten. She can hear when Lasse starts screaming in the evenings.
Lasse likes Aunt Lotten. He often goes upstairs to visit her. One day, he's sitting in Tant Lotten's nice flat, and Tant Lotten asks him "Would you like to try putting on my glasses?"
"Yes please!" says Lasse. He's never tried wearing glasses before.
----------------------------
These are the world's most amazing glasses. You can see hundreds of miles with them. All the way to the big woods. Lasse looks and looks.
"What can you see?" asks Aunt Lotten.
"I can see a bear!" says Lasse. "A little bear cub! And his mum too!"
"What's the bear doing?" asks Aunt Lotten. "He's sitting in his bed," says Lasse. "Is he screaming?" asks Aunt Lotten. "Uh, no," says Lasse, and goes just a little bit red.
No indeed, Teddy isn't screaming. He's eating porridge with honey and looks perfectly content.
----------------------------
He's had such a nice day in the woods. He played with another bear cub, called Bruno. Teddy and Bruno went down to the creek to throw stones. They thought they'd see who could throw furthest. They could both throw a really, really long way. And it was so much fun to hear the stones fall in the water! Then Nalle somehow managed to fall in the creek himself. And seeing that he was already completely wet, he thought he might as well splash around a bit. He splashed around for quite a while and sprayed water all over Bruno.
"I wish I'd fallen in too!" said Bruno. But luckily, that's just what he did.
Tomorrow, Teddy thinks he's going to go back down to the creek and splash around some more. If his shoes and socks have dried out by then, anyway.
----------------------------
Lasse looks in another direction. He sees the rabbits' bedroom.
The little rabbits are about to go to bed. They're alone at home. Their mum has gone out to a party. It's so much fun to go to bed all on their own!
"Now make sure you go to bed early and don't lie awake talking," said Mrs Rabbit before she left.
But the rabbits aren't in a hurry. First they think they'll have a pillow fight. (Mrs Rabbit has put numbers on all their pillows, because otherwise they can't remember which bed they're supposed to sleep in. Everyone wants to sleep in the middle). They've just started the pillow fight, and one rabbit says: "Hey, we forgot to go and wash!"
----------------------------
They rush off to the bathroom and fight to see who's going to get there first. But one of the rabbits is feeling a bit sleepy and thinks he'll lie down for a minute in his bed.
"We're going to stay up for ages... and ages... and ages" he yawns. And suddenly he's asleep.
----------------------------
"These glasses are really good," says Lasse.
"See if you can find anyone else who's asleep," says Aunt Lotten.
Lasse can. He sees five little baby birds. They're sleeping so soundly that Lasse can almost hear them snoring. But one of them isn't quite asleep yet. He's called Nosse. Nosse's so tired! He's spent all day learning to fly. His brothers and sisters already know how to do it, and Nosse can too, sort of. But when he said: "I flapped my wings five times!" his brother just laughed and said "Ha! Ha! I saw you had one foot on the ground!"
So Nosse thinks he's going to get up before the others tomorrow morning, so he can start practising early.
----------------------------
The Squirrel family have three children. Their names are Kalle, Kurre and Kajsa. Their dad is very bad tempered.
"Get those damn kids into bed so I can read the newspaper without hearing them running around all the time," he says to Mrs Squirrel. And Mrs Squirrel tells the children that whoever's in bed first is going to get a sweet.
----------------------------
"Kajsa's going to be first," says Kalle. "She always is."
He's right. Kajsa crawls into the middle bunk and sucks her sweet until she goes to sleep.
"You don't have to slurp like that," says Kalle. "I know you've got a sweet anyway."
Kurre pulls down the blind and gets into bed too. He's in a terrible mood. He wishes he'd also got a sweet.
"You know it's not healthy to eat sweets after you've brushed your teeth," he tells Kajsa.
"I don't care," says Kajsa.
Kalle sneaks out of bed again to play with his toy train. Dad's still reading the paper so he doesn't notice. Kalle's built the train himself, and it's really good. Kalle puts it next to his bed when he finally thinks he'll go to sleep. He's planning to build, like, a thousand of these trains. Then he'll sell them all and become a very wealthy young squirrel.
----------------------------
It's incredible what Aunt Lotta's glasses can do. You see right through the floor with them. Mrs Mouse lives down there under the ground. Just now she's very angry.
"What do you think you're doing, coming home this late?!" she yells at poor Kasper. He's coming down the stairs and looks quite scared.
"Why didn't you come home in time for dinner?" asks Mrs Mouse. "What have you been doing?"
"I was playing out in the yard..." says Kasper.
"Again!" says Mrs Mouse. "Eat your food and then go straight to bed. The other children are already asleep."
But Kasper can see that his sister Nilla is still awake. She pokes her head out and looks so pleased when she sees Mrs Mouse telling him off.
"I never go out and play in the yard at night," says Nilla.
Just you wait, thinks Kasper. As soon as I'm in bed, I'm going to pull your tail.
----------------------------
"Now you go home and go to bed too," says Aunt Lotten to Lasse. "You see that all the other children have to go to bed at night."
Lasse takes off his glasses. He nods to Aunt Lotten. He doesn't say a word.
When he gets back to his room, he takes off his clothes so quietly that his mum doesn't hear a thing. He puts them on a chair. He goes to the bathroom, and brushes his teeth, and washes his face properly. Then he gets into bed.
He thinks of all the other children who are sleeping right now. Teddy Bear, and the little rabbits, and Nosse the bird, and Kalle Squirrel, and Kasper Mouse.
A bit later, his mum comes in to tell him that Lasse, I'm sorry but you must go to bed. She's so surprised when she sees he's already asleep! She can hardly believe it's true.
August 1, 2017
Thank you R&S Books and Barbara Lucas for bringing this to the US. Sweet and magical story, with beautiful and hilarious illustrations. I'm not sure how it is that seeing all the different animals convinces (Larry) that he should go to bed, though. Some are more compliant, others are naughtier, what's the lesson? Just that everybody has to sleep sometime?
Anyway, this is quite likely my favorite set of illustrations by Wikland. They're pretty enough for me, detailed enough for many rereads, and funny enough for the most stubborn child. I particularly love the young squirrel swinging on the overhead lampshade. Especially because it's that shade that's like a shallow bowl, the one that looks like the cap for the birdfeeder marketed as 'squirrel-proof.'
Highly recommended. If your library doesn't have it, recommend that they add it to their wishlist.
Anyway, this is quite likely my favorite set of illustrations by Wikland. They're pretty enough for me, detailed enough for many rereads, and funny enough for the most stubborn child. I particularly love the young squirrel swinging on the overhead lampshade. Especially because it's that shade that's like a shallow bowl, the one that looks like the cap for the birdfeeder marketed as 'squirrel-proof.'
Highly recommended. If your library doesn't have it, recommend that they add it to their wishlist.
December 19, 2020
Ilon Wickland's illustrations really make this book. Lindgren, who wrote the Pippi Longstocking books, did understand young children well. A nice book about a child who doesn't want to go to bed is greatly enhanced by the illustrations, some so funny that I was laughing out loud!
It's rather hard to find these days, but worth the search.
It's rather hard to find these days, but worth the search.
September 29, 2025
Niin söppänä!
November 15, 2017
Pięcioletni Lasse straszliwie awanturuje się przy spaniu. Pewnego dnia zaprzyjaźniona sąsiadka z mieszkania na górze pokazuje mu przez swoje magiczne okulary, jak zachowują się rodziny zwierzątek w lesie. To zupełnie zmienia chłopca.
Opowiastka jest uproszczona i nudna w odbiorze, brakuje tu zwykłej dla Lindgren przenikliwości i poczucia humoru, przedstawione rozwiązania problemu są banalne.
Opowiastka jest uproszczona i nudna w odbiorze, brakuje tu zwykłej dla Lindgren przenikliwości i poczucia humoru, przedstawione rozwiązania problemu są banalne.
October 25, 2021
Det här har varit en mycket trevlig bok att läsa på kvällen. Vi får en liten chans också att prata hur språk ändras.
Vuxen: "Där nere bor Fru Råtta. Just nu är hon alldeles förfärligt ond".
Sedan lägger jag till, ja hon är ju inte ond, hon är arg. Så sa man förr i tiden.
Den är så lättsam och härlig med kivande syskon, lek och stoj.
Vuxen: "Där nere bor Fru Råtta. Just nu är hon alldeles förfärligt ond".
Sedan lägger jag till, ja hon är ju inte ond, hon är arg. Så sa man förr i tiden.
Den är så lättsam och härlig med kivande syskon, lek och stoj.
July 23, 2023
Kauniisti kuvitettu, yksinkertainen, mutta yllättävän paljon tarinaa sisältävä kirja. Lienee mukava luettava pienille lapsille.
September 4, 2025
When I saw this book at the library and noticed that Astrid Lindgren was the author, I wanted to read it at once. Sadly, it wasn't as amazing as her books usually are. While I get the fact that she's trying to show little kids that they shouldn’t make a fuss about bedtime, it wasn't that endearing or, what I would think would be all that motivating.
Ages: 4 - 8
Here’s a few of our bedtime favs: watch my reel!
Content Considerations: a little boy disobeys and screams. Bunnies don't obey their mother rabbit right away. Someone says "phooey." Some kid squirrels argue. A little rat plans to pull his sister's tale. There is a picture of a boy naked (behind exposed).
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide Content Considerations, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
If you’re considering a book or looking for a new title to read, check out my highly categorized shelves, read my reviews and Friend or Follow me to spiff up your feed with clean, wholesome, living books.
I have an Instagram account that’s pretty bookishly unique too!
Ages: 4 - 8
Here’s a few of our bedtime favs: watch my reel!
Content Considerations: a little boy disobeys and screams. Bunnies don't obey their mother rabbit right away. Someone says "phooey." Some kid squirrels argue. A little rat plans to pull his sister's tale. There is a picture of a boy naked (behind exposed).
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide Content Considerations, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
If you’re considering a book or looking for a new title to read, check out my highly categorized shelves, read my reviews and Friend or Follow me to spiff up your feed with clean, wholesome, living books.
I have an Instagram account that’s pretty bookishly unique too!
February 2, 2025
[Why not having kids 101]
May 16, 2014
Jag kan den här boken utantill, det är ett mästerverk.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews