Little Sprites in the Dark Night

By day, Nori the little bear is afraid of nothing. She leaps from stone to stone across the creek, chases butterflies to the edge of the meadow, and holds a mushroom over her head when it rains. But when the light goes out, the curtain becomes a spider and the corner becomes a monster, and Nori pulls the blanket up over her nose.

Mama doesn't laugh. She sits on the edge of the bed and says the most useful sentence in the world: "Mama was scared of the dark too, when she was little." Then she shares a secret — the dark is where the little sprites live, the ones who chase bad dreams away, tuck in loose blankets and keep watch until morning.

You can't see them, so you listen: the hush of wind in the leaves, the crickets, and your own slow breathing, which means a sprite is breathing right there beside you. A bedtime story for brave little bears, ending in the words Nori learns to say to herself: "I'm a little scared, and that's okay."