The Flying Bed

The Flying Bed
Author: Nancy Willard
Painter: John Thompson
ISBN-10: 0590256106
ISBN-13: 978-0590256100

The Flying Bed is an incredibly beautiful book with an enchanting story. Newbery Award winning Nancy Willard tells the tale of the baker Guido and his wife Maria. Guido has inherited the bakery from his successful father but doesn’t have his skills. "Guido's icings were lumpy and his fresh bread tasted stale." Needless to say with that kind of baking going on, the customers go elsewhere, the business is dying and the couple is poverty stricken.

In desperation, Guido takes to selling just about everything they have to survive but when he sells the bed Maria puts her foot down. She will have a bed or she’ll move back home with her parents. So Guido heads off to find some kind of bed that will please Maria and be cheap enough for him to afford.

Guido takes a turn down an alley and finds a most unusual bed. It’s intricately carved and looks as if it were made for someone very rich. The shopkeeper tells him that the bed has chosen him and charges him nothing. Maria of course, is charmed by the bed and falls instantly in love with it. The first night however, the bed reveals is dark side and leaps out the window, terrified couple in to fly through the night sky of Italy. They encounter a Master Baker and things start to turn magical for the couple.

The Flying Bed is an amazing tale and the illustrations are just gorgeous. The paintings of the bed make it look almost alive and the aerial view of Florence is just stupendous. The book took my breath away. If you love art, Italy, and old fashioned fairy tales then this is the book for you. If you don't, you will after reading this. Highly recommended!

The Pull of the Ocean

The Pull of the Ocean

Author: Jean-Claude Mourlevat,

Translator: Y. Maudet

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN-10: 0385733488

ISBN-13: 978-0385733489

The Pull of the Ocean is a wild little story based upon the tale The Adventures of Tom Thumb by Charles Perrault and I absolutely adored it.

Yann Doutreleau has six brothers, all tall for their age, but he is no more than two feet tall. Yann is the youngest and mute but also the cleverest and most intelligent of the brothers as well as the undisputed leader. He communicates by gestures and looks and can say more with his eyes than most people can say with their voice. Yann loves school and learning while his brothers do not. The Doutreleau brothers are very protective of Yann and love him very much in spite of his differences or perhaps because of them.

On a dark and stormy night, little Yann, overhears his parents fighting and wakes his three sets of twin brothers telling them that the parents plan to harm them. They leave, led by Yann and start a journey to the ocean. It’s a strange little parade, three sets of malnourished, ragged twin boys and one very tiny doll of a boy leading the way sometimes from the inside of a bag.

Each chapter is narrated by a different person; a school social worker, police, a student, a baker, a writer, each of the brothers and others and each has their own perspective on what they saw, did or heard so the book ends up being 21 points of view.

I found the story completely enchanting from the very first page. It’s a lovely little jigsaw of a fable on the spirit of brotherhood and I highly recommend it. The Pull of the Ocean was the winner of a prestigious award when it was first published in France and I expect it will win its share here. Buy it and read it, you won’t be disappointed.

About the Author:

Jean-Claude Mourlevat is a major author of children's fiction in his native France, where his novels have garnered numerous literary awards. The author lives in France.