Undercover Report: Time for Bed's Story by Monica Arnaldo

Bed has got a some job grievances, and he's not taking his treatment lying down!

HELLO? BED HERE.

YES, BED.

BED HAS SOMETHING TO SAY.

He gets it that kids don't necessarily love him at bedtime. He's used to excuses like a needing a few more minutes to finish a game or yet another drink of water, or one more story. He's a professional and knows those excuses go with the territory.

BUT LOOK! YOU ARE NOT SO GREAT EITHER!

You kick all night! You drool stinky slobber all over. Yeah, yeah. You say you brush your teeth.

BUT BED IS NOT SO SURE.

And that's not the only source of smelly stuff. How about that banana peel turning black under the bed along with that half-chewed slice of pizza and your stinky old sneakers collecting dust woozles under there! And why, oh why, do you insist on putting unsightly stickers all over every surface? They don't exactly improve with age either! And there are always, er, improbable/i> things under the covers.

WORST OF ALL--THE TOOTH!

Bed points out that he is always there, doing his duty. Night in, night out, he always there. Could his client perhaps grow up a bit?

NO?

Despite what kids might think, being their beds is not a cushy job, but somebody's got to do it, in Monica Arnaldo's Time for Bed's Story (Kids Can Press, 2020), in this quirky story of unappreciated furniture laying out job complaints from an unexpected point of view. Says School Library Journal, "The character of Bed is endearing in his curmudgeonly demeanor, [with] out-of-the-box thinking.

A Winter's Tale: A Big Bed for Little Snow by Grace Lin

When winter began, Little Snow's mommy made a big new bed just for him.

"Now you have warm feathers to sleep on," Mommy said."

"Remember, Little Snow, this bed is for sleeping, not for jumping."

JUMPING?

That motherly suggestion is heeded about as much as the famous folkloric advice not to put beans up your nose!

As soon as Mommy goes away, Little Snow jumps. And Jumps. And JUMPS on his bed!

And in the morning when he doesn't hear Mommy stirring, he jumps some more!

Tiny feathers squeezed out of his bed and fluttered down.

This jumping goes on secretly. Mommy never catches him at it, until--

Once, Little Snow jumped so high and landed so hard, he made a rip in his bed!

What a lot of feathers fell that day!

Snowy feathers fill the floor of Little Snow's room, and feathery snow fills the landscape outside.

Did Little Snow do all that? What a powerful jumper Mommy's boy must be. The jig is up with Little Snow's bed, in Grace Lin's latest, A Big Bed for Little Snow (Little, Brown and Company, 2019). As in her lovingly illustrated companion book to Lin's Caldecott Honor Book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, Lin combines beautifully realistic illustrations with a fantasy-tinged bedtime story of a first snow--inside and out. This new one is a tender story of motherly love and a mischievous boy that warms the heart as the snow falls outside his bedroom window. Now it's time to jump in real snow as Mommy sews a new feather bed, and all's well that ends at last with a laugh, inside and out.

"A wondrous, wintry read." says Horn Book's starred review.