It is the last evening of the year and Jake feels hollow. Tomorrow it will be a different year – and he does not know it yet.

He flies out on his cardboard sledge above the village and finds an old tower clock called Tick in the square, who fears midnight more than anyone: at twelve her whole year goes back to the beginning, as though it were all starting over. Jake is afraid of the very same thing. So they sit down together and watch the stars, which also go round and round.

Twelve richly illustrated pages with three or four sentences on each – a New Year bedtime story for children aged 5 to 7 about not starting over, but only going on.

Jake’s Adventures, book 6. Book 4 is Jake and the Littlest Candle. Book 5 is Jake and the Gift That Would Not Wrap. All three winter stories together are in Jake’s Christmas – for less than two separate books.

Idea and editing: Peter Mráz. The text and illustrations were created under his direction by the artificial intelligence Grok (xAI).