My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep Around the World

by Rebecca Bond, Salley Mavor (Illustrator)

Overview

* “Children around the world go to sleep in different beds in this ingeniously illustrated picture book…Read this before bedtime to ensure a world of sweet dreams.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Delightful rhymes and charming hand-stitched art celebrate the many ways we sleep across the world. Perfect for a baby shower gift and for fans of This Is How We Do It.

My bed rocks on water
My bed sways in the breeze.
My bed’s beneath a curtain
My bed’s aloft in trees . . .

In the Netherlands, some beds rock on water. In Brazil they might sway in the breeze. From Canada to Japan, Afghanistan to Norway, sleep has taken many forms and shapes throughout history. Astonishing, hand-stitched illustrations and a delightful narrative tell the story of sleeping traditions across the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544949065
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	304,990
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Rebecca Bond is the author-illustrator of many books, including Out of the Woods: A True Story of an Unforgettable Event and Escape from Baxter's Barn, a Junior Library Guild Selection and Amazon Editor's Favorite Pick. She grew up in the tiny village of Peacham in northeastern Vermont.

Salley Mavor rediscovered her childhood delight in sewing and creating miniature scenes while studying at RISD. “I found I could communicate ideas more clearly than with pencil or brush, that my hands would direct me in a compelling way.” Her innovative bas-relief sculptures appear in the award-winning Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, as well as other picture books. She lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
 
www.weefolkstudio.com
Instagram: @salleymavor
Facebook: Weefolkstudio

Editorial Reviews

11/02/2020

On each spread, Bond describes a child’s bedstead in rhyming first-person perspective, paired with an informative contextualizing paragraph. “My bed unrolls on grasslands vast—it travels where I go,” reads one, which depicts the “wide-open steppes of Mongolia” in stitched greenery, alongside a cross-section of a white ger and its jewel-toned interior. Mavor’s immersive signature illustrations charm; the intricately stitched art, handcrafted from fabric, beads, wire, and yarn on embroidered fabric backgrounds, will assuredly catch readers’ attention. Endpapers feature a variety of animals, including an elephant, a crocodile, and a ryukin goldfish; spreads highlight the animal that might be found within each country’s environment—the elephant for India, crocodile for Ghana, and ryukin for Japan. This meditation on global similarities and differences is worth poring over for the fabric relief art alone. Back matter includes a note about the stitching. Ages 4–7. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

★ "Children around the globe go to sleep in different kinds of beds in this ingeniously illustrated picture book.... All readers will want to return to pore over the details of these imaginative depictions.... A concluding note about the creation of the illustrations will be fascinating to adults and may prompt them to work with children to make some fabric collages. Read this before bedtime to ensure a world of sweet dreams." —Kirkus, STARRED review "This eye-catching volume looks at bedtime....While the text is helpful, it’s secondary to the photos that showcase Mavor’s wonderfully detailed, diorama-like scenes, created with fabrics, beads, wood, and wire and richly, meticulously embellished with embroidery in thread and yarn. Featuring vibrant, harmonious colors, interesting patterns, and folk art charm, the illustrations will impress craft-minded viewers with the artist’s ingenuity and attention to detail. A handsome book to share with young children."—Booklist "Mavor’s immersive signature illustrations charm; the intricately stitched art, handcrafted from fabric, beads, wire, and yarn on embroidered fabric backgrounds, will assuredly catch readers’ attention....this meditation on global similarities and differences is worth poring over for the fabric relief art alone." —Publishers Weekly —

From the Publisher

★ 2020-07-28
Children around the globe go to sleep in different kinds of beds in this ingeniously illustrated picture book.

Fashioned from fabric, beads, wire, and yarn and using embroidery stitches as adornment, the compositions have some depth and use deep colors. All readers will want to return to pore over the details of these imaginative depictions. Each scene features one or two children in their sleeping places: hammocks in Brazil, a courtyard in Iran, a rooftop in Morocco, alcove beds “nestled into walls” in Norway, or mattresses “outside in the fresh air” in Ghana. As befits its international theme, the children and the occasional adult in the pictures are diverse. Each double-page spread includes a fabric-relief picture that fills two-thirds of the spread, and on the left, one half of a rhyming couplet that gives an overview followed by a short description of the scene and its country. An appropriate fabric animal appears: an elephant for India, a rooster for Russia, a koi for Japan. The animals appear on the endpapers, creating a guessing game, and they also show up in the last scene, of a child snoozing in a presumably North American home. Only a map is missing for a complete learning experience. A concluding note about the creation of the illustrations will be fascinating to adults and may prompt them to work with children to make some fabric collages.

Read this before bedtime to ensure a world of sweet dreams. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews