A voice made for bedtime
Professional narration, unhurried and warm. No chirpy cartoon energy — just a story that knows how to settle a room.

A read-aloud picture book
Two Norwegian Forest cats. One still pond. A story that teaches children how to notice — read aloud in a warm voice, with every word glowing as it is spoken.
Written by Rick Kirschner · Illustrated by Sophia Weaver · Ages 2–8

22
illustrations
12 min
read-aloud
2–8
the ages it loves
1 voice
unhurried and warm
Why this book
Coco & Lala is a read-aloud picture book you keep — with the illustrations, the narration, and a player designed for small hands and sleepy eyes.
Professional narration, unhurried and warm. No chirpy cartoon energy — just a story that knows how to settle a room.
Early readers follow the glow. Pre-readers listen. Grown-ups who are too tired to perform still get to share the page.
A picture book of 22 watercolors about stillness, friendship, and a pond quietly alive with sight and sound. Built for the last twenty minutes of the day.
The companions
They are grown Norwegian Forest cats — long-haired, substantial, and in no hurry. Every morning they walk to the same wooden bridge. They do not speak much. They sit, side by side, until the pond has told them whatever it meant to tell.
Written by Rick Kirschner and illustrated by Sophia Weaver, the book is a dusk-lit world of 22 watercolors — willows, strawberries, and a mermaid who keeps watch over the waterfall.
Hear a sample
Coco
Twenty pounds of black fur. She likes to watch. First to sit.

Lala
Smaller, and almost all coat. She likes to discover. Last to leave.

Willows lean in. Roses climb. A mermaid sits in the moss above the waterfall and does not explain herself. Children who finish the book often ask to hear it again — not because it is loud, but because it leaves a little room.
The read-aloud edition adds a narrator who treats that room with care: pauses where the pictures breathe, and never rushes the last page.
Hear a sample
The opening and the first three pages are free. Pictures breathe. Words glow. After the willow, the rest of the pond lives in the listen-along.
Opening · Dedication
1 of 4
Welcome, welcome to the quiet pond.
This story began beside a real pond.
There is a small bridge there, a willow tree, a waterfall.
Most days, you can also find two cats.
Coco likes to watch, Lala likes to discover.
There is always something worth noticing.
Inside the book
One beautiful book, read slowly, with the pictures given room to breathe. Hear a page here, then take a copy home.

Try the first page here. Each spoken word lights as it is read, so early readers can follow along.
Hardcover for the shelf, softcover for little hands, ebook for tonight. Same pictures throughout.
Written for the last twenty minutes of the day. No chase scenes. No noise.
Two grown Norwegian Forest cats, a mermaid who keeps watch, and a pond that knows how to listen.
Sophia Weaver’s watercolors — willows, roses, strawberries, and dusk — printed in full color.
An imprint of Talk Natural LLC. A quiet book, made as a keepsake.
Choose an edition
The sample stays free. The listen-along is the rest of the story, voiced on this site. Paper copies are printed and sold through Lulu.
On this site
The full pond, narrated, with every word glowing as it is spoken. Yours to keep on any screen.
$15.95
Tonight
The full picture book on any screen, ready in a minute.
$2.99
For little hands
The everyday copy — light enough for a backpack, sturdy enough for bedtime.
$12.92
For the shelf
The keep-forever edition. A book that can sit out and still look like a gift.
$40.70
From the house
Play it beside a child. Play it from the hallway. Play it when your own voice is gone for the day. The pond does not mind.

“It’s such a peaceful book. My nervous system settled reading it. And then Jed (6) took it to read himself after. Good and easy for the kids to read themselves. Beautiful!”
“I use the sample for quiet time. This much stillness is a gift in a kindergarten room.”
“The pictures are the kind you linger on. The voice never steps on them. That is rarer than it should be.”
Begin tonight
We’ll write from CocoandLala@AtTheQuietPond.com. Tell us if you want the listen-along — the rest of the pages, voiced, with every word glowing — or a printed copy from Lulu.