My Bed Is an Air Balloon - by Julia Copus (Hardcover)

About the Book

Beautifully presented with two front covers, this concept book from the bestselling, award-winning author of "Welcome to the Zoo" offers a mirror form poem about two children (twins, one in an air balloon, the other a sailing boat) who meet in the clouds. Full color.

Book Synopsis

"Jay's whimsical paintings with their soft lines, calming blue-green-natural palette, round-faced children, and smiling moon match perfectly with Copus' rhythmic text to make for a calming bedtime read."--Kirkus

From the bestselling, award-winning, much-loved author of Welcome to the Zoo and ABC, a beautifully presented book with two front covers. The text can be read from front to back and vice versa. The mirror form poem meets in the middle in a stunning centerpiece image as the two children in the story (twins, one in an air balloon, the other a sailing boat) meet in the clouds!

Review Quotes

"Dreamy sights and imaginary creatures surround children floating in their beds in this sleepy rhyming picture book. From the front, a boy in his air-balloon bed sails "through the slipsiverse, close by the moon," above trees and hilltops where "fluttertufts" and "whifflepigs" sleep and creep, over "ponds strong with starlight," and up through the air. His bed is finally blown "adrift on the sea where the dream-shapes float; / When night falls my bed is a sailing boat." The child's bed, rather improbably, becomes the balloon itself, the dangling basket his dog's bed, and when it transforms into the sailing ship, the dog's bed becomes a dinghy it tow. In the middle of the book, his sailing-boat bed meets that of a girl, whose adventure is then followed to the end of the book. It mirrors his exactly, ending with "When night falls my bed is an air balloon." The book can be read from front to back or from back to front, which is poetic and intriguing once readers unaccustomed to right-to-left texts get used to it. Jay's whimsical paintings with their soft lines, calming blue-green-natural palette, round-faced children, and smiling moon match perfectly with Copus' rhythmic text to make for a calming bedtime read. The boy is white with sandy blond hair and blue eyes; the girl is black, with brown afro puffs. A light bedtime story for children with a taste for whimsy and nonsense."--Kirkus

About the Author

Alison Jay has a first-class degree in illustration from the London College of Printing. She worked in animation before moving on to children's illustration, for which she works in quick-drying oil paint. She is well known for her children's books and her Welcome to the Zoo was selected as one of New York's Bank Street's best books of the year in 2009. William and the Night Train was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal and won the Transworld Children's Book Award.