A Bed of Stars
Jessica Love
Walker Books

This beautiful demonstration of how powerful knowledge can be, begins with the child narrator telling readers that the immensity of the whole universe makes him feel so small as to be insignificant. This thought would keep him awake at night, but then one morning over breakfast his father announces, “We’re going camping you and me.”

The two pack up what they need and set out for the desert in the old family truck. The smell changes from ‘rubber and french fries’ as they leave the city and head into the mountains where it smells sweet and smoky. Dad talks of the flowers they pass and when they reach their destination, he points out the tiny beetle footprints in the sand. The two then jump in the dunes,

lie back and observe and name the birds and set up camp together. They build a fire, sing songs and watch the sunset.

Come bedtime, as they lie gazing skywards, the boy reiterates his fear of going to sleep because of the vastness of the universe. ( I love how beautifully this is mirrored in the blanket.) Dad knows just what to say and explains in his calm, thoughtful manner that stars are made of energy, “Same as you. Same as the beetles and crows and coyotes. We’re all friends and family in this universe. Maybe if you learned their names, they wouldn’t feel so much like strangers.” Then snuggled up together, the two give distinctive names to every star they can see and with fear transformed, the child drops off to sleep.

The next day, after hot chocolate and a greeting to the desert flora, the two are ready to return, The child repeats en route, the names of “all the new friends I’ve met… beetles, cacti, coyotes, stars,” At home Mum shares a surprise of her own making. Now at last, the child feels ‘at home in the universe.’

This tender, reassuring story with its scattering of small word pictures, shows just how a parent’s empathy and undivided attention allows his child to gain a different perspective on the universe. Jessica Love’s delicate watercolour, gouache and ink illustrations convey both intimacy and vastness making this contemplative story perfect for bedtime sharing (or any time), especially for anyone experiencing a lack of confidence similar to that of the child narrator.