Good night Stella - Kate McMullan|Emma Chichester Clark

"Good night., Stella," says her dad one evening when Stella's mum has gone out to the cinema. But Stella's mind is wide awake and full of such curious questions as, if a vampire bites you and you take a drink, will water spurt out of your neck? And can your eyeballs fall out? Then she gets in a panic because she can't stop swallowing. In the end, her dad says he'll go to bed, because he's sleepy and Stella can stay awake and wait up for her mum. Stella hops out of bed, she dresses up, she plays with King, her soft-toy gorilla, and Melissa, her doll. She lines up her teddy bears. She projects her fears on to her toys and then comforts them. Then she watches Cheeko, her hamster, going round and round in his cage ... Later, Stella's dad tiptoes back into her room. "I can't go to sleep," he says. But he gets no reply, because Stella's fast asleep.;Kate McMullen is the author of Nutcracker Noel and The Noisy Giants' Tea Party, which she wrote with her husband, illustrator Jim McMullan.;Emma Chichester Clark won the Mother Goose Award for her first book, "Listen to This". She has since illustrated a number of children's books, including the Walker titles "The Minstrel And The Dragon Pup'; "Ragged Robin'; "I Never Saw a Purple Cow"; "The Haunting Of Pip Parker" and "Ruth and the Blue Horse".