My Bed

Starred review from August 15, 2020
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)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 15, 2020
Preschool-G This eye-catching volume looks at bedtime, a recurring topic in picture books, and broadens its scope to include children around the world. Scenes include kids going to sleep in 12 ways, such as in hammocks (Central and South America), on a houseboat (the Netherlands), in a yurt (Mongolia), on a futon (Japan), and in a wooden bed (Canada and the U.S.). A typical double-page spread includes a large illustration and, beside it, a smaller rectangle carrying two kinds of text: a line of rhyming verse and, for those who want to know a bit more, a smaller-type sentence or two of additional information in prose. 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

November 2, 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.

July 1, 2020
"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.

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2020
"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. Kitty Flynn

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)