Rita M. Bergstein
Viking Juvenile (2008)
ISBN 9780670060795
Reviewed by Cayden (age 3.5), Max (age 19 months) Aures and Mom for Reader Views (4/08)
“Your Own Big Bed” is a wonderful book chronicling events in every young child’s life from being born, to being carried, to walking, to sleeping in a crib and finally to sleeping in a big bed of their very own. Alongside these events taking place in the child’s life, the book also shows the same milestones being achieved by baby animals like ducklings, tigers and foals.
Cayden: “Max, I think this book is for you! You just got your own big boy bed!”
Max: “Big bed!”
Max: “No crib.”
Cayden: “Look at the baby alligator! Are the animals going to get bigger?”
Cayden: After we read the part about the kangaroo riding in her mother’s pouch: “It is also called a pocket mom.”
Cayden: In disbelief after learning that mother tigers carry their cubs around in their mouths: “In her mouth? No they don’t. Do they mom?”
Cayden: At the illustration of the father marking the child’s height on the door frame as he grows bigger: “My daddy does that downstairs!”
Cayden: “That puppy is sleeping in a doghouse so she doesn’t get wet in the middle of the night in case it rains.”
Cayden: “Look Max there is a boy sleeping in a big boy bed like you and I do!”
Max: “Big boy!”
Parent’s comments:
Max just transitioned into a “big boy bed” a couple of days ago so our first reading of this book came at a perfect time. Both of my children could completely relate to the story and we had a lot of fun with the book. Max even seemed to think the child in the book was him because every time there was a picture of the boy he pointed to it and said “Me.”
It was also a great learning experience for them to watch the animals grow up and to see that even though they may do different things, like fly or sleep in baskets, there are still a lot of similarities between how they grow and how we grow. “Your Own Big Bed” is a very sweet book and even though inside the cover it says for “Ages 4 up” I think that younger children would enjoy it as well, especially those who have just made the transition to a toddler or regular bed.
No responses yet