MY BED IS AN AIR BALLOON

Dreamy sights and imaginary creatures surround children floating in their beds in this sleepy rhyming picture book.

From the front, a boy in his air-balloon bed sails “through the slipsiverse, close by the moon,” above trees and hilltops where “fluttertufts” and “whifflepigs” sleep and creep, over “ponds strong with starlight,” and up through the air. His bed is finally blown “adrift on the sea where the dream-shapes float; / When night falls my bed is a sailing boat.” The child’s bed, rather improbably, becomes the balloon itself, the dangling basket his dog’s bed, and when it transforms into the sailing ship, the dog’s bed becomes a dinghy it tow. In the middle of the book, his sailing-boat bed meets that of a girl, whose adventure is then followed to the end of the book. It mirrors his exactly, ending with “When night falls my bed is an air balloon.” The book can be read from front to back or from back to front, which is poetic and intriguing once readers unaccustomed to right-to-left texts get used to it. Jay’s whimsical paintings with their soft lines, calming blue-green-natural palette, round-faced children, and smiling moon match perfectly with Copus’ rhythmic text to make for a calming bedtime read. The boy is white with sandy blond hair and blue eyes; the girl is black, with brown afro puffs.

A light bedtime story for children with a taste for whimsy and nonsense.