In the Middle of the Night

This is one of the best picture books I've ever seen. It succeeds in celebrating the profound magic of the ordinary phenomena that occur every night in sleeping cities: cats prowling deserted streets; the lonely passing of night trains; unseen and unsung labour in factories, bakeries, hospitals and office blocks; quiet little transitions between life and death. Anybody who has ever worked a night shift, or walked home in the hours before dawn, will instantly recognise the spell cast by the poetically economical text and the subdued magnificence of the illustrations. Children, too, will recognise the enchantment of a realm that is, for most of them, forbidden.