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Download this Five on the Bed Activity Guide to use in your home or classroom. Includes art activities!
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Five on the BedPublished by West Margin Press, October, 2020
ISBN: 978-1513264288 32 pages list price: $16.99 How many on the bed? How many below? Count along with this family as they go about their day and get ready for sleep. BUY NOW
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kids are saying
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adults are saying
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I like the cat and the dog from Five on the bed, and I like that it's people instead of bears. Thanks for making these books. --Dotty, age 7 I like Five on the Bed because some of them went away and all of them came back. -- Cora, age 5 |
The impressively intricate collaged cut-paper art adds texture and depth with a slight 3-D effect. The artwork beautifully captures all of the messy, silly, and joyful family interactions. A delightful counting book to read aloud, especially at bedtime. --Kirkus Reviews Boswell creatively uses cut paper to create a textured, 3D look on each page. VERDICT The vivid cut-paper illustrations bring to life this amusing bedtime story, ideal for one-on-one reading at nighttime. --School Library Journal |
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Story behind the story
Growing up on a farm, I was surrounded by pets -- the ordinary variety as well as runt piglets and sickly calves that needed nursing. But since leaving home for college, I had been pet-less. So when my future husband and I adopted two cats, I sunk into the warmth and silliness I'd missed from co-existing with other creatures. We would often all curl up by day, happily reading and purring, and whisper, "Four on the bed!" It became the family shorthand for domestic bliss. Which was challenged when we added a baby a few years later. My daughter wailed; the cats grimaced, nobody slept. But eventually, our daughter grew up and befriended the cats and joined the quest. "Five on the Bed!" she would shout-whisper, trying to keep her busy little limbs still.
In the illustrations, the little girl and the gray cat are modeled after my daughter Imogen and my cat Cucamonga. The mother and father are based on members of other families I know. I switched our tiger-striped cat into a dog, only realizing I'd turned Beazle into a Beagle later on. While I was working on the illustrations, our dear Beazle died so we are back to Four on the bed and it doesn't seem right. The book is dedicated to these four pieces of my family, as you see below: Adam, Immie, Beazle and Cucamonga.
But the story of the bed -- the off-and-on and back-and-forth and sometimes fraught sharing -- is a universal story to families of all sizes, cultures, and species. When you see this family piled up, you probably think of your own family and the intricacies of their sleeping. So who is on your bed? And how are you all sleeping?
In the illustrations, the little girl and the gray cat are modeled after my daughter Imogen and my cat Cucamonga. The mother and father are based on members of other families I know. I switched our tiger-striped cat into a dog, only realizing I'd turned Beazle into a Beagle later on. While I was working on the illustrations, our dear Beazle died so we are back to Four on the bed and it doesn't seem right. The book is dedicated to these four pieces of my family, as you see below: Adam, Immie, Beazle and Cucamonga.
But the story of the bed -- the off-and-on and back-and-forth and sometimes fraught sharing -- is a universal story to families of all sizes, cultures, and species. When you see this family piled up, you probably think of your own family and the intricacies of their sleeping. So who is on your bed? And how are you all sleeping?
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Making of the book
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make your own collage
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