The night watchman leaves his home and family as the sun is setting and heads off to work alone. He makes his rounds on a city lot where big equipment is parked through the night. “Stars twinkle. The full moon shines like an old friend. He thinks of his boy and girl, safe and asleep at home.” Then out from under a big truck comes a small kitten. “Meooo www. ” The kitten follows him. “Garbage trucks line up like circus elephants …. An excavator bows like a strange giraffe.” He shares his dinner with her on his break, and then…she disappears! The worried night watchman is relieved when the kitten finally shows up again, and as night becomes dawn, he heads home. “But this time he is not alone.” Arresting descriptions of the sights and sounds surrounding the night watchman are as satisfying as the tender resolution of this story featuring a brown-skinned man and his mixed-race family. (Ages 3–7)

Winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Margaret Wise Brown Prize

SELECTED AS A BEST BOOK OF 2018 BY THE BOSTON GLOBE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, AND BOOKPAGE

“Empathetic, poetic, and a joy to look at, cute kitty and all.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“This quiet, understated book contains a wealth of emotions.” –The Horn Book (starred review)

“[Illustrator] Yoo sets a lovely mood, taking readers from sunset to dawn through washes of orange, pink, and blue, the watchman’s compassionate demeanor assuring them that all’s well.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Yoo’s textured, serene artwork in beautiful saturated tones perfectly complements Sullivan’s lines and conveys a beauty in the night and the construction site that readers might otherwise miss.” —Booklist (starred review)

“This soft, gentle story is a perfect bedtime story for lovers of trucks and construction equipment, cats, and nighttime wanders.” —BCCB (starred review)

A stray kitten changes the way the watchman sees nighttime in this tender book based on a true story, illustrated by Strictly No Elephants artist Taeeun Yoo.

The night watchman hugs his wife and kids and drives to work.
All night he is alone.
Every hour he makes his rounds.

He sees the stars twinkling. He hears the sounds of the night:
ki-DEE ki-DEE ki-DEE
shhhhheeeeeEEEERRRROOOOooooommmmmm
Woof! Woof! Woof!

Meeeoooow.

When he is joined by a stray kitten, the night suddenly seems different. Has the kitten found a new home?

Kitten and the Night Watchman is inspired by the true story of author John Sullivan meeting a stray cat while working as a night watchman. The cat, Beebe, was John’s companion for seventeen years.