I Said, "Bed!"

PreS-K—In this cleverly imagined easy reader, a boy and his teddy bear do not want to go to sleep. "Bedtime is boring," the boy tells his mom. Fortunately the bear has a monkey wrench, which turns the bed into a four-wheeler racing out of the boy's room and then into a sailboat tossing on the ocean waves. With a turn of the wrench, the bed is transformed into a rocket going to the moon. "This bed can land," says the bear. "Let's land in the sand," says the boy. The pair is joined by three-eyed moon children. Soon, the boy and bear want their bed back, and by growing graceful green wings, it transports them home, where the boy sleeps amid rainbows and stars. Fanciful full-color artwork, done with colored pencils, allows the adventure to flow like an ever-changing dream. Emergent readers will appreciate the way familiar sight words and occasional rhymes are printed in speech bubbles. The word "bed" appears often, and the final page features nonsense words that rhyme with "sleep." Everything about this book is solid, from its picture-book size to its seamless melding of story and art. It raises the bar on what a beginning reader can be and will inspire any child to enjoy reading.—Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN