September 11 – Make Your Bed Day

Happy Make Your Bed Day!

Why Do I Have to Make My Bed? Or a History of Messy Rooms written by Wade Bradford and illustrated by Johanna van der Sterre (2011)

When a grumpy boy asks the question, ‘Why do I have to make my bed?’ his mother replies with a  history of children who have asked the same question. His grandmother asked the same question after she had already washed and dried the dishes, dusted her rock’n’roll records, and picked up her slinky, hula-hoops, and roller skates. Her grandfather asked the same question after he had fetched water from the pump, dusted the phonograph, and picked up his spinning tops, toy train, and tin soldiers. His great-grandmother asked the same question. Her great-great grandfather asked the same question. And back, and back, and back… through the pioneer days, colonial America, voyages to the New World, in the Middle Ages, the Age of the Vikings, the Roman Empire, Ancient Egypt, and all the way back to prehistoric times when the cave boy who asked the same question after he had already hunted mammoth, dusted the stalagmites, and made the fire.  Why? Why? Why? And the cave-mother just stared at him and said, ‘Because I said so.’ And so all through history, the children just said, ‘Oh,’ and made their beds.

*****

Whether you stay up late or sleep in today, you’ll still have to make your bed. But before you do, enjoy these funny picture books about going to bed.

Creak! Said the Bed written by Phyllis Root and illustrated by Regan Dunnick (2010)

Momma and Poppa were sleeping in the bed when Evie, who was frightened by the storm, bounced in their bed. And the bed said, Creak. Soon Ivy joined them and the bed said, Creak. Not long afterwards, Mo climbed in with them and the bed said Creak. The whole family was snoozing when the thunder crashed sending their dog Fred in the bed, and the bed said CRACK. The bed collapses under the sleeping family. And the floor said, Creak.

Bed Hogs written by Kelly Dipucchio and illustrated by Howard Fine (2004)

‘In Sooey, South Dakota, in a sloppy, stuffy sty, there’s an itchy ol’ straw bed where the Bed Hogs pile high.’ Underneath is huge and stinky family little Runt can’t get to sleep. So one by one, he shoves, kicks, tickles, and pushes them out of bed. ‘Ahhh, much bette!’ Or is it? Without his Mama, Papa, sisters, and brother, little Runt is all alone. He’s cold, scared, and lonely. So he cries out, ‘Come Back!’ and all the Bed Hogs pile back into bed. ‘Zzzzz End!’