Far from all civilisation, a magical egg appears. The animals don’t know where it came from, or what will emerge from it. When the most beautiful – and noisy – bird anybody had ever seen emerges, they have two problems. First: what feature should they name the bird after – and in what language, and second: is there a lullaby anywhere in the world that will help the Bird of What to sleep, so they can get some rest from his squawks???
The Bird of What Who Wouldn’t Sleep is a magical, musical story created for National Storytelling Week 2026, which runs under the topic “Soundtrack Your Story”. The story features lullabies in Brazilian Portuguese, Kiswahili, and German, but will require many more! A perfect opportunity to engage parents in storytime, whether in person or asking them to record a lullaby in their home or heritage language. The video of the story is below and can be played directly, to be stopped as necessary. Two worksheets support the story: one for children to decide on a name by writing their multilingual thoughts, and another where they can draw the bird and/or egg.
