THE SQUEAKY, CREAKY BED

Thompson adapts a cumulative folktale told by Pura Belpre and others, in which a timorous lad acquires a cat, a dog, a piglet, and a parrot as bedmates to help him get over his old bed’s squeaks and creaks. In sketchy, vigorously drawn cartoons, Daly gives the tale a contemporary country setting, outfitting the young insomniac with a pair of hippie grandparents and a lively animal chorus. Finally the bed breaks down completely—and when the new one proves to be too quiet, the clever parrot provides a litany of creaks and squeaks that effectively sends the lad off to slumberland. Rather ungraciously, the tale’s antecedents are not acknowledged—but like earlier versions, notably Laura Simms’s variation, The Squeaky Door (1991), it still makes a fine tale for telling, replete with animal noises and loud cries. (Picture book/folktale. 5-8)