THE DUCK CAN'T SLEEP

Midnight insomnia meets wide-awake waterfowl when an old poem appears in a new form.

On a bit of a poem-to-picture-book tear since she illustrated poet Mary Oliver’s Goldfinches (2026), artist Sweet once more plucks verse from the past. This time E.B. White’s 1928 perambulation poem “Natura in Urbe” is the star of the show. Inspired by his sleepless nights spent walking around Central Park, the poem begins, “While midnight clung to every shore, / I walked me round the reservoir.” On this ramble, the subject encounters a duck swimming serenely at the same late hour. White’s delicious language infuses this simple encounter with wonder as he describes the fowl’s “negligible wake” and asks if he is pondering problems of his own. “A midnight sail to clear his vision / And help him reach some duck decision.” Sweet has a true talent for presenting poems that were never originally intended for children as entirely accessible, even enticing, to young readers. Relying on her signature mixed-media collage style, she incorporates maps of stars and Central Park, alongside painted scenes depicting both nighttime in the city and the nocturnal beauty of nature. The book includes a note from White’s granddaughter Martha discussing her grandfather’s love of nature and offering background on the poem.

Sleepers awake. An uncommonly pleasing consideration of wakeful wanderings.