Martin Waddell is now one of the most prolific and successful contemporary children's writers, with more than one hundred books to his credit, some of them under his pseudonym Catherine Sefton. Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? has received international acclaim by winning the Smarties Grand Prize and the Kate Greenaway Medal (U.K.), as well as Le Priz des Critiques de Livres pour Enfants (Belgium) and a 1992 Parents' Choice Honor. His other awards include the Kurt Maschler Award for The Park in the Dark and the Children's Illustrated Book of the Year for Farmer Duck. Martin also writes ghost stories, largely for the fun that a ghost can add but also to show how the past always affects the present.