Pip the Little Owl and the Night That Wouldn’t End

Chapter 1: Sometimes sleep doesn't come easily, and that's okay

In a cozy hollow high in an old pine tree, there lived a little owl named Pip. Pip had round golden eyes, fluffy gray feathers, and a very strange problem for an owl.

He couldn't sleep at night.

"Owls are supposed to be awake at night," Mama Owl would whisper. "It's the daytime when little owls sleep."

But Pip had it backward. When the sun rose and the other owls tucked their heads under their wings, he was wide awake, bouncing on the branch. And when the moon came out and the forest woke up to play, Pip's eyes grew heavy and he yawned.

Tonight was different, though. Tonight, even in the dark, his eyes would not close.

It was a quiet, windy night, and the whole forest seemed to be settling down. The fireflies were blinking out, one by one. The crickets hummed a slow, sleepy song. Mama and Papa were nestled together, breathing softly.

Pip lay in his little nest of moss and feathers and stared at the ceiling of the hollow.

Tick, tick, tick, went the beetle in the bark.

Whoo, whoo, sang the wind.

"I can't sleep," Pip whispered. "I'm so awake."