A Sleepless Night

2024 Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book

2025 USBBY Outstanding International Books

Little Elisa can’t stop crying and no one knows why. After a sleepless night, it takes a grandmother’s touch—and an explosive fart—to bring much-needed relief.

One night, little Elisa begins to cry. At first her crying resembles a cat’s meow. But it soon grows so loud that the flowers wilt and the birds fly out the window. We move her bed so she can see the moon, we wrap her up warm, cool her down, and tie a red ribbon to her wrist. But nothing works. We all wonder: Why is she crying?

After a long sleepless night, it takes a grandmother’s touch to finally find out. Elisa lets out a fart that sounds like a plane taking off in the middle of the living room, nine blenders whirring at full power, twenty-seven moaning hair dryers . . . An irreverent story about the wind that passes through us all, A Sleepless Night shows that seemingly complicated problems can have simpler solutions than we think.

Micaela Chirif is an award-winning Peruvian author of children's books and poetry. She has a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, as well as a Master’s Degree in Books and Children’s Literature from The Autonomous University of Barcelona. Among other awards, her picture books have won the A la Orilla del Viento, a picture book competition from the Spanish-language publishing house Fondo de Cultura Económica and three of her picture books were White Ravens selections. Micaela’s books have been translated into Korean, Japanese, English, Portuguese, and French.

Joaquín Camp was born in Buenos Aires in 1987, and presently lives in Madrid. He studied Graphic Design at Buenos Aires University where he also taught Illustration. As an illustrator, he has worked for editorials in Argentina, Spain, Korea, United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Saudi Arabia. His work was selected for Bologna Book Fair illustrators’ exhibition 2019 and for the Iberoamerican Catalogue, in 2016 and in 2020 with honorary mention. In 2020, he won the International Illustrated Picture Book Contest, organized by the Library of Gran Canaria, with his book Anibal, the Ghost Dog. His book The Piano won seventh place in dPICTUS 2020 selection.

Jordan Landsman was born in New York City. After graduating from Binghamton University, he spent several years living in Buenos Aires, where he co-created the BA Comedy Lab and taught literary workshops at Walrus Books.