When You're Too Excited to Close Your Eyes (The Golden Apple)

A children's bedtime story about being too excited to sleep, inspired by an old Chinese parable about trying to hurry what grows in its own time. 

Tomorrow, for the first time, Leo is going to the sea, and one more sleep feels far too long. In the garden at dusk, his grandpa tells him about a little squirrel, and the one golden apple that was worth a whole summer's wait.

For children 4 to 8, and whoever sits beside them.

About the tale: the teaching behind the golden apple is the old Chinese story of the farmer who tugged on his rice sprouts to make them grow faster, told by the philosopher Mengzi (Mencius) around 300 BC. "Pulling up sprouts to help them grow" is still a Chinese saying for hurrying what cannot be hurried. Our squirrel and his apple carry the same lesson, retold for ages 4 to 8.