The Bed Book

By Author / Illustrator
Sylvia Plath, Cindy Wume
Genre
Picture Books
Age range(s)
3+
Publisher
Faber & Faber
ISBN
9780571384891
Format
Paperback / softback
Published
02-01-2025
Synopsis
From Pulitzer Prize-winning Sylvia Plath, this is the perfect bedtime read, written for her own children, exquisitely illustrated by Cindy Wume in picture book form for the first time.
A Tank Bed's got cranks
And wheels and cogs
And levers to pull
If you're stuck in bogs.
Or a Jet-Propelled Bed
For visiting Mars
With mosquito nets
For the shooting stars.
Beds come in all shapes and sizes, and need not be boring beds at all . . . There are submarine beds, for nosing through water like a sardine, beds for fishing, and jet-propelled beds that take you all the way to the stars.
The perfect bedtime read, playful and comforting, the poem demonstrates Plath's eye for imagery and arresting language and is exquisitely illustrated in full colour throughout.
Reviews
Lucy
The Bed Book is a rhyming story, which many children love. They enjoy spotting the words that rhyme together and predicting which words may finish different sentences. It's also a lovely book to help to develop children's imaginations by taking them to many weird and wonderful places.
We loved looking at the picture of Mars with the shooting stars and also enjoyed spotting different animals that appear throughout the book. We particularly loved the huge, pink elephant! The simple yet effective pictures will help children to depict the different scenes with clues into each world the words are describing.
The Bed Book is a nice book to enjoy with children of different ages at home as it starts by describing different beds they may use at different ages before heading into many wonderful places!
Picture book / Reviewed by Lucy Hopkins, teacher
Suggested Reading Age 3+