Bebé Koala, ¡tienes que ir a la cama!
Out on 15 October 2026 · Durii Editorial · Cuentos de 0 a 3 años · Infantil y Juvenil · Todas las edades
Synopsis
The moon has risen over the eucalyptus forest and the koala family—red dad, green mum, two middle siblings in orange and purple, and little Baby Koala in pink—is going through its nightly ritual: bath, supper, teeth brushed, and finally up to the highest branches to sleep. Everyone curls up happily, because koalas, as everyone knows, love to sleep. Everyone except one. When Mum tries to tuck Baby Koala into her pouch so they can sleep together, the little one opens his eyes wide and announces, with no intention of negotiating, that what he wants to do is dance. And dance he does: hands in the air, hips back, leaping and spinning without stopping, while the rest of the family—exhausted and bewildered in equal measure—repeats the refrain that holds the whole book together: "Baby Koala, Baby Koala, you have to go to bed." But the dancing is only the beginning. Baby Koala turns himself into an unstoppable little log, rolling from branch to branch before his siblings' astonished eyes. Then, just when everyone thinks he might finally calm down, he produces an enormous pot and begins cooking with eucalyptus and mistletoe leaves in the dead of night, waking not only his family but the entire forest neighbourhood. Each new escapade seems more outlandish than the last, and every time the family thinks they have reached the limit, Baby Koala answers with a fresh "I DON'T WANT TO!". The book plays with this cumulative structure—the same refrain, a different variation each time—until someone finally dares to ask him the right question: what does Baby Koala actually want to do? The answer arrives as a small twist that reframes everything that came before: what the little koala really wants is to dream. And to dream, he discovers, you have to sleep. The book closes with a conspiratorial wink at the adult reader—"don't make a sound, or he'll wake up"—and with the promise, as simple as it is effective, that sleep is not a punishment but the door to the greatest of all night-time adventures.
Machine translation, pending review.
Selling points
- Estructura acumulativa con estribillo que los niños de 0-3 años memorizan y piden repetir noche tras noche.
- Humor reconocible: la ironía de un koala —el animal más dormilón del mundo— que se niega a dormir.
- Giro final tierno que resignifica la resistencia a dormir como deseo de soñar, no como capricho.
- Personajes codificados por color, fáciles de identificar incluso para los lectores más pequeños.
- Formato cartoné robusto (23x23 cm) pensado para la manipulación de bebés y niños pequeños.
- Escrito por una educadora infantil desde la experiencia real con su propio hijo.
Comparable titles
- El monstruo de colores se va a la cama, Anna Llenas
- Buenas noches, Gorila, Peggy Rathmann
- The Koala Who Could, Rachel Bright
Technical data
- ISBN
- 978-84-10075-84-9
- Format
- Hardcover
- Pages
- 36
- Dimensions
- 230 × 230 mm
- Weight
- 350 g
- RRP
- €18.00 (VAT included)
- Publication
- 15 October 2026
- Edition
- Edition 1
- Legal deposit
- M-24162-2026
- Language
- es
- Imprint
- Durii Editorial
- Series
- Cuentos de 0 a 3 años
- Age
- Todas las edades
Classification
Cuento acumulativo · Cuento de buenas noches · Humor tierno infantil · Literatura de rutinas familiares
For bookshops and distributors
The price shown includes VAT. Trade terms and orders are in the
Distribution: Azeta in Spain · Panoplia de Libros in Latin America · Direct distribution from the publisher
Rights
Translation rights available for all languages.
Bebé Koala, ¡tienes que ir a la cama! is a warmly humorous bedtime picture book for children aged 0 to 3, written by Spanish author An Mo and illustrated by Pupé. In a family of brightly colored koalas nestled in a eucalyptus tree, everyone loves to sleep — except the youngest, Baby Koala, who would rather dance, roll around like a croquette, or cook a midnight feast than close his eyes. The book follows a cumulative, refrain-driven structure — 'Baby Koala, Baby Koala, it's time for bed' — that rewards repeated reading aloud and invites toddlers to anticipate and join in. Each new refusal escalates the household chaos, until a simple question reveals Baby Koala's real motive: he does not want to avoid sleep, he wants to dream. The book closes on a tender, complicit hush, reframing bedtime as the doorway to imagination rather than a punishment. Written by a childhood educator drawing on real nights with her own son, the text combines physical comedy — dancing, rolling, cooking — with a gentle emotional payoff that works equally well for children and the adults reading to them. Its short, repetitive text, bold color-coded characters, and sturdy hardcover format make it an ideal fit for international bedtime and toddler-routine lists, comparable to titles like 'The Koala Who Could' or classic cumulative bedtime stories, while offering a distinctly Spanish comedic sensibility. We believe this title has strong potential in markets with active early-childhood and bedtime-book categories, particularly where humor-driven routine books outperform purely soothing ones.
An Mo
Valdepeñas · 1989
I was born and grew up in Valdepeñas, a city shaped by wine and art. I live in Madrid now, a capital that welcomed me and gave me room to breathe, to feel the beauty of things, and to create. It also brought me the love of a micropoet, who shows me every day that you can fly as far as you like — and yet I stubbornly choose to stay by his side. Inspiration finds its way. We make a good team. I am many things at once: I have moved house more times than I can count and changed jobs just as often. I never let a train go by, or a plane. That is how I move through life — enjoying the comings and goings, the ups and downs that always leave me with stories to tell. This story is a song for my son León, and a tribute to life itself and to all the small children who share my days as an early-years teacher.
Machine translation, pending review.
