Midnight. Stars speckle the darkness with bits of light. A cockroach skitters across the kitchen floor to snatch a forgotten breadcrumb. In the backyard, a spider weaves an intricate design on the fence. Winged insects dance and flicker in the porch light. Day and night, small creatures are busy working, eating, hunting, hiding. This nonfiction picture book reveals the hidden lives of insects and other small creatures from one midnight to the next. The world may appear to be sleeping in the dead of night, but it is not.

As moonflowers open and stars shine, nature goes about her business. The world never sleeps. Natalie Rompella's lyrical text is vividly complemented by Carol Schwartz's watercolors. A cat roams through the illustrations--silent witness, in the house and in the yard, to the myriad lives of night and day. A sense of mystery pervades all--even the backmatter natural-history portraits of the animals met in the book. This nature book invites children into a parallel universe, one that teems with life while they sleep. Lexile Level 700; F&P Level O.