Why Do I Have to Make My Bed?
by Wade Bradford
illustrated by Johanna van der Sterre
Age: 4+ (right up to age 7 or 8)
Interests: history, families, chores
Tricycle Press: 2011
32 pages
Next: more history picture books… The Post Office Cat, The Glorious Flight, Ox-Cart Man, Abraham Lincoln
When a boy asks his mother this familiar question – “Why do I have to make my bed? It’s just going to get messed up again.” – she remembers a story about his grandmother not wanting to make her bed, and her mother told her a story about her grandfather not wanting to make his bed,… and so on back to pioneer times, to Viking times, to Roman times, to Egyptian times, all the way back to a disgruntled cave boy. Their chores may change over the centuries, but all these children have the same views on bed-making, and their mothers all have the same answer.
The repetitive narrative is lively and fun, the illustrations capture child-parent friction in an amusing way, and the punchline is perfect.
If you’re looking for a way to introduce history to your preschooler, this is a wonderful book to do it. Not only does it challenge them with the story-within-a-story-within-a-story, but it explores the idea of our grandparents and their grandparents linking us slowly back and back through time. It starts them thinking about the lives of children who lived long ago, how much things have changed and how little people have changed.
Rarest Kind of Best 