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40 pp.
| Houghton
| September, 2020
|
Trade
ISBN 978-0-544-94906-5
$18.99
|
Ebook
ISBN 978-0-358-35905-0
$13.99
(
2)
PS
Illustrated by
Salley Mavor.
"My bed rocks on the water. / My bed sways in the breeze. / My bed's beneath a curtain. / My bed's aloft in trees." A gently rhyming text accompanies exquisitely crafted illustrations, taking listeners on a lulling bedtime journey around the world. Each double-page spread features a different locale (twelve in all); a short paragraph in smaller type follows the brief main text and offers one or two facts about a country, region, or culture: "In warm, humid parts of the world, such as India, finely woven netting prevents mosquito bites, even when one is sleeping with the windows wide open." In an endnote, Mavor (
A Pocketful of Posies, rev. 11/10, winner of the 2011 Boston Globe–Horn Book Picture Book Award) discusses the research that informed her hand-stitched illustrations and provides insight into her labor-intensive artistic technique. The mesmerizing scenes--made from "fabric, beads, wire, and yarn on embroidered fabric backgrounds"--incorporate patterns and details relevant to each location, including the Netherlands, Brazil, Afghanistan, Ghana, Canada, and Japan. Bond's (
Out of the Woods, rev. 9/15) spare text is a pleasing contrast to the elaborate illustrations. While the book's premise is introducing differences in sleep customs among cultures, young listeners will drift off with a sense that no matter where we lay our heads, we are more alike than not.
Reviewer:
Kitty Flynn
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2020