In the Night Garden

by Carin Berger

A gentle, collage-illustrated bedtime read about the often mysterious and always beautiful experiences to be found in nighttime spaces.

In the night garden fireflies look like fallen stars.
Moonflowers unfurl and release their intoxicating perfume.

In the night garden you can lie
on the cool grass and look up to the
millions and trillions of stars…

In the night garden, nothing is as it seems and everything is made new. Blinking stars and pale moonlight might reveal a lone cat tiptoeing across a roof, luminous flowers unfurling in the cool air, a mama fox escorting her sleepy cubs home. Listen closely and you might hear the wind blowing through the trees, the murmur of a slow stream, or the gentle song of crickets and bullfrogs, lulling you to sleep.

Carin Berger is the award-winning author of The Little Yellow Leaf, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. With soothing words and spectacularly detailed, hand-cut collage artwork, she has fashioned a bedtime book like no other. Curious readers will be rewarded when they look for the mysterious cat that appears on every page!

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Nature, Animals, Cats, Storytime, Art

32 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 2023

About the author

Carin Berger is an award-winning designer and illustrator. She is the creator of Not So True Stories & Unreasonable Rhymes and All Mixed Up, and the illustrator of Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, by Jack Prelutsky. She won the Society of Illustrators Founder's Award in 2006, and Publishers Weekly called her "one to watch." Carin Berger lives with her family in New York City.

Reviews

[Rosemary Standeven · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful, relaxing book – perfect for little ones at bedtime. You could stare for ages at the gorgeous illustrations – seeing something new each time you read the book. Keep an eye out for the little black cat that tiptoes through the pages.
Night time comes alive. Darkness ceases to be a cause of fear – of the unknown or of ‘missing out’. It becomes a time of wonder. A place to expand your imagination (in a good way – not monsters under the bed way). Listen to the sounds of the night – and fall into a gentle, restful sleep.
Very highly recommended.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The nighttime setting makes this a nice bedtime story. Since the black cat on the cover is what attracted me to the book, I was happy to find him on every page.

[Ms. B · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's so much to see in these illustrations about how wonderful it can be to be outdoors in nature on a clear night. There are the stars and depending on the season so much more (fireflies, flowers, a shooting star, bats, harvest moon, foxes, and more).

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A calming, atmospheric story of the nighttime world with lovely papercut illustrations. I especially liked the black cat who cavorted through the pages, adding a touch of whimsy and magic.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully illustrated picture book shares the wonders of the night with young readers. In collage-style pictures, the starry sky, the beautiful moon, and all the nighttime creatures join together for a sweet story perfect for bedtime. I loved how the story teaches children not to be afraid of the noises they may not recognize at first, like the wind through the trees, or the crickets and the owls. I also especially loved how the writer included a cat for children to look for in each illustration. What a wonderful bedtime read!

[Elizabeth A · Rating 4 out of 5]

When my nephews were little, Goodnight Moon was a staple read around here, and the kids kept pointing out the little mouse in each spread. This wonderful collage-illustrated picture book makes me miss have little ones to read aloud with. Look for the cat. Highly recommended.

[Boni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caldecott, please.

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect bedtime story, this soothing book has beautiful and unusual mixed-media illustrations.
Absolutely gorgeous!

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended to all ages and people!!
This is exactly what I love about the best picture books: The text and illustrations move seamlessly around each other, the language is simple and lyrical, and the illustrations are stunning and filled with surprising touches. I'm also a sucker for cut paper collage, so there's that. This book is soothing and a visual delight.

[Deborah]

Beautiful.

[Kelly]

Ok, this is my dark horse, but I think it's pretty enough to get a Caldecott Honor. I can't say it's better than BIG or better than Big Tree (yes, there is a pattern among my contenders), but I think it is unique and well done.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

THESE ILLUSTRATIONS. This book shares the quiet magic of bedtime with gorgeous cut paper collage. Soothing text to match these lovely and moody illustrations creates a serene bedtime picture book.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collage-style illustrations are beautiful, especially when they cover both pages. I did find some of the random text (assuming from recycled paper) to be a bit distracting, but this was overall a joy to look at.

I loved that the cat was guiding us the entire way. The story went along well with the vivid graphics. Lovely book that you can find lots of small details in.

[Mrs Heet -Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, I wanted to love the text and the collage type illustrations. At times the text felt off, and the illustrations were fine until you notice that the animals eyes are human eyes cut out of other images. Once I saw that, it gave a very odd feeling to the rest of the illustrations.

[Austyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very pretty. That's...it.

I prefer a book with a beginning, middle, and end. A narrative structure. This does not have that. I believe this book will win many awards, but will many children love it? I don't foresee that happening.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

The immensely talented Carin Berger, whose cut-paper collage illustrations are always a joy to behold, returns in this latest picture book, which is by far her most beautiful yet! The minimal text describes the sights, sounds and feelings of the eponymous garden, while the artwork depicts the beauty of the natural world at night, and captures the charm of the little black cat whose presence provides a visual leitmotif throughout. The book closes with an invitation to sleep, having considered the many delights of the night garden...

As an admirer of Berger's work, which I first discovered through the lovely autumn picture book, The Little Yellow Leaf , I have been looking forward to In the Night Garden, and I was not disappointed. From beginning to end, it is just an absolute pleasure to peruse! I loved the deep color palette, with dark blues and greens, relieved by occasional bright colors, as it perfectly captures the mysterious enchantment of nighttime vistas. The use of cut paper was (as always with Berger) fascinating, particularly when the paper included bits of text, or of sheet music. The scene with the foxes was charming, and the cat throughout was adorable. Although I don't know that this has the same poignant appeal as Berger's The Little Yellow Leaf , which is probably her best book, from a narrative/storytelling perspective, I do think this one is her best achievement, aesthetically. Just a gorgeous, gorgeous book! Recommended to fellow fans of the artist, and to anyone seeking quiet, gentle bedtime books with beautiful illustrations.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This lovely picture book celebrating the beauty and mystery of the natural world after the sun goes down, is a 3.5 for me. The detailed illustrations consist of paper collages, which consist of "found ephemera, and scraps of paper, including ticket stubs, receipts, and ancient ledger books" (unpaged), all of which come together to lend a mysterious feel to the book's pages. The story actually begins on the copyright page as fireflies in bubbles of various sizes float across the night sky in the pages, looking as much like stars fallen from the sky as anything else. The minimal text relies on powerful verbs such as "unfurl" (unpaged), "tiptoes" (unpaged), "swoop and glide" (unpaged) and descriptive vocabulary such as "sliver" (unpaged) and "fiery red" (unpaged) to guide its readers through the night garden, moving from feeling awestruck to fearful to comfortable, by turns, eventually relying on the sounds of various night creatures to sing them to sleep. This memorable picture book serves as a gentle but firm reminder that there are wonders all around us, if only we stop to look and listen. The concept of Mother Nature's night garden is an interesting way to depict what's out there in the dark.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the first page, from the first scrawl of poetry, this book ensnares you. It is beautiful in the sense that all ages can read it and gain a different understanding of its story. Once you accomplish that in literature, you know you have truly succeeded in being a writer. This book reads like a symphony, with the swell of stars and vines and details woven into every page. Gold detailing beautifully offsets the navy blue that takes up space in a majority of the story and the longer you look, the more details you will unravel. The illustrations create a sense of peace and nostalgia and can almost transport you to another realm with the sheer amount of attention that is placed into every design. Moonflowers in particular were my favorite, accompanied by the line: 'Moonflowers unfurl and release their intoxicating perfume.'

I would love to see this book win a Caldecott and feel that it is well-deserved in a way that cannot simply be put into the words of a single review. (Probably will go read again right after this. Yes, it's that good.)

[Erin (bookwitchenergy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't say this a lot, but this book is truly a work of art. It stopped me in my tracks and slowed me down as I was reading it, which is quite the feat. My compliments!

The art within is mixed media, most of it seeming to come from recycled papers, though there are some two-dimensional buttons included as well. The recycled papers were chosen correspond to the theme of the writing on the page, too--it's not all haphazard, but it is interesting and beautiful. I absolutely loved it. And if it caught my attention, it certainly will be beloved by smaller, newer readers as well.

For those who cannot sleep because their brains race around too quickly when they're supposed to be resting.

I borrowed this from my library, but I may end up buying it for my childless personal library as well, I loved it that much.

[Marathon County Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully illustrated picture book shares the wonders of the night with young readers. In collage-style pictures, the starry sky, the beautiful moon, and all the nighttime creatures join together for a sweet story perfect for bedtime. I love how the story teaches children not to be afraid of the noises they may not recognize at first, like the wind through the trees, or the crickets and the owls. I also especially love how the writer included a cat for children to look for in each illustration. What a wonderful bedtime read!

Sarah M. | Marathon County Public Library
See this book in our catalog.

[Laura Giessler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't decide between a 3 and a 4. 3 seems harsh--the collage illustrations are beautiful, magical, calming. I loved the illustrations that included musical score when night animals were singing. But the text in various collage pieces distracted me--I kept wanting to read them and understand the deeper meaning of why this particular text was used. It's a bedtime story, but the "story"...there isn't really a story with a beginning, middle, and end--more of a collection of thoughts about nighttime, and a girl falling asleep at the end--but with BEAUTIFUL illustrations! Obviously, I have mixed feelings!

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has amazing artwork. I mean, wow! The artwork is outstanding. It could easily have been a Caldecott Nom book.

This is setting a Go-to-sleep vibe really well. It's a poem about all the sounds you can hear drifting off to sleep. You want to drift off just listening to the words. The poem is rather simple and yet it works.

Read this in a soothing voice and hopefully those bouncing energy balls will go to bed and go to sleep instead of taking an hour to finally get to sleep after get up and asking for water and asking Alexa questions and all sorts of other things.

Anyway, the point of this book is the mood it creates and the artwork. Beautiful. A work of art.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeously illustrated collage picture book about all of the beauty that exists at night, a veritable night garden of heavenly delights: Stars, fireflies as fallen stars, shooting stars, a black cat, bats, the new moon, the harvest moon, crickets, owls. Follow the cat all the way through (oh, yeah, that's him on the cover, take a closer look)! There's a kind of ending tribute to Good Night, Moon, in the pictures on the walls of the little girl's bedroom featuring images we have seen in previous pages. Wonderful.

[Roben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely book about exploring night time. Fireflies that look like stars. Beautiful flowers that only bloom at night. The illustrations are created using collage so you will notice bits of text layered here and there. My favorite was the actual pieces of sheet music used to illustrate the music of chirping crickets and hooting owls. Searching for the small black cat wandering throughout the book is also a wonderful addition. A beautiful, lyrical ode to the beauty and mystery of a garden at night.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berger's marvelous assemblage art highlights this tale of all the wondrous sights and sounds that await you outdoors after dark.





A beautiful book you'll want to open again and again.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens in the garden at night? Follow a small, lone, black cat as they explore the sounds, smells, visions and activities that happen in the garden at night. Beautiful paper and found object (ticket stubs, receipts, ancient ledger books) collage are hand cut and placed on a cool, blue background. Fireflies glow, moonflowers “unfurl” and the moon moves through its phases. Silhouetted trees are an ever present background and hold the cat, owls and even the wind. Look for the cat on every page.

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this on so many levels. I can't imagine the patience to create this book of collages, plus it is just beautiful! It would be fun to ask students to create a scene using a collage with many different types of paper, ephemera as well. I also enjoyed this interview with Berger about the book. https://www.thechildrensbookreview.co...

[Binxie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredibly interesting book. I was fascinated by the papers used in the illustrations - instructions for something, a warranty, what might be receipts, a book keeping ledger, sheet music, all sorts of papers. But that is the adult in me, the child in me loved finding the black cat, noticing the calm that came while gazing at the pages and reading the sparse but perfect text. This will be a fun wind down, get ready for bed book, and might be enjoyed in a small group setting as well.

[Dest · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted the cat to be Cupcake, but I guess it's the house!

Anyway. This has a lot of details that will probably be slowly discovered during multiple readings, which is something I love in a picture book. I can imagine a grown-up and child reading it regularly and noticing new things each time... The pictures in the little girl's room. The cat on every page. The writing on the recycled paper. How the book goes through the seasons. Are those flowers made from buttons?