The Night the Crickets Went on Holiday
A bedtime story in seven scenes. Scroll slowly and poke at things: most of them make a noise.
1Scene 1: Made of a Hum
One night, the Moon couldn't sleep, so she hummed. The hum curled up on a cloud, yawned, and turned into a baby.
That's Pip. Round skull face. Big soft eyes with two warm lights inside. A starry nightcap with a pink bow, slightly crooked. Smile, also slightly crooked. He giggles at everything: socks, spoons, the word “spoon”.
Because he's made of a hum, Pip can't stand quiet. Quiet makes his toes itch.
He's the Junior Dream Engineer at the Midnight Nursery. “I build the dreams you fall asleep inside,” he tells a chair.
By the nursery door, a pencil line says PIP, FIRST NIGHT. It's very low down.
2Scene 2: Gone to the Seaside
Every night, the neighbourhood falls asleep to the crickets. Tonight, Pip found a note pinned to a blade of grass:
GONE TO THE SEASIDE. BACK TUESDAY. — THE CRICKETS
Then the night went quiet. Not cosy quiet. The other kind.
Up and down Lantern Lane, windows blinked back on. Bramble the hedgehog was counting sheep, but the sheep made no sound, so he kept losing his place. The seven Velvet mice were all awake, whispering about it. The Moon slept through everything, as usual.
Pip's toes itched like never before.
“Right,” he said. “I'll make the noise.”
3Scene 3: Rattles, Then Blocks
First, Pip built rattles. Big ones, small ones, one shaped like a carrot. He handed out forty-one.
It was very not-quiet. Nobody slept, but everybody giggled, which Pip counted as half a win.
So he built something quieter: blocks. He stacked them very high and then, being Pip, knocked them over. Bonk, bink, bunk, bonk.
Pip sat very still. Every block had made a different note.
He stacked them again, in order, and tapped. Bonk, bink, bunk, bonk, bonk. It almost sounded like a song.
Your turn: tap or drag the blocks onto the stack. Tap the bottom one to test the floor.
4Scene 4: The Lullaby Lab
But a song has an end. And after the end comes the quiet.
So Pip built a music box that never plays the same tune twice. It shuffles the block notes, slow and soft, like a yawn with a tune in it. As long as someone winds it, the song never ends.
Thimble, the smallest Velvet mouse, asked for a unicorn on top. Pip glued one on. It's only a little crooked.
He wound the gold key. Ting… ting… tiiing.
Up and down Lantern Lane, someone yawned. Then someone else.
Drag the gold key round in a circle to wind it (or press and hold).
5Scene 5: Lamps for the Dark Bits
Some windows stayed lit. Pip floated over to ask why.
“Big light on, I can't sleep,” said Bramble. “Big light off, the dark's too big.”
Pip understood. Big dark is a lot like big quiet.
So he made a small light: a bell with a moon cut into the side, glowing exactly as much as “it's okay.” Then more, because nobody wants the same lamp. The duckling triplets wanted one each, all identical, then argued about whose was whose.
Move the lantern light around to find the lamps, then click each one.
Click. Click. Click. The big lights went off. The dark got edges.
6Scene 6: The Long Way Round the Weathervane
Now everyone was sleepy, and sleepy creatures need dreams. Delivering those is Pip's favourite part.
He loaded his cloud: a pancake dream for Bramble, a being-enormous dream for Thimble, a puddle dream for each duckling (the same one, three times).
But Pip was sleepy too. He visited Bramble's roof three times. He bonked a weathervane and said sorry to it.
So he drew a map, chimney by chimney, with a dotted line that goes round the weathervane. He's learned a dotted line is more of a suggestion.
Click a glowing roof to drop its dream down the chimney.
7Scene 7: What Everybody Sounds Like
Pip yawned so wide he forgot to wind the music box. Ting… ting… and it stopped.
Pip held his breath. Here it came: the quiet.
Except it didn't. A whistle from Bramble's hedge. Seven very small mouse snores. Three duckling snores, in a row. One enormous, slow snore from the Moon.
So that's what everybody sounds like, asleep.
Pip giggled softly, which for Pip is a first. Before bed, he checked the pencil line by the door. He hadn't grown one bit. So he drew the new marks sideways.
