A Bed for the Wind

A child takes a magical flight through the evening sky looking for a place for the wind to rest.

Kindergarten-Grade 4 At bedtime, Peter hears the wind and wonders where he sleeps at night. During a dream sequence, he and the wind explore possible bedsa lake, a valley, a forest, and finally, a plain, the only satisfactory sleeping surface for such a large creature. The story is reminiscent of MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind and other traditional fairy tales in which children travel with the wind and see the world, usually at night and seemingly during their sleep. What makes this book unique is its modern American setting, with a real boy who meets the fantasy character of the wind. The pen and watercolor pictures are generally dark and surrealistic, full of motion as befits such a nighttime story and such a tempestuous main character. Sometimes the wind looks like a hairy Jehovah and sometimes like the oversized Gulliver in Lilliput. The lighting and overhead point-of-view are sometimes reminiscent of William Blake's visionary illustrations. Overall, the story and the pictures are successful in answering an authentic childhood query about the anthropomorphic needs of natural phenomena. Ruth K. MacDonald, Perdue University Calumet, Hammond, Ind.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Peter asks his mother where the wind sleeps at night (the mournful sound it makes saddens him), and she dismisses his question. But his father tells him to query the wind. The wind, faced with such a sympathetic boy, takes Peter on a search for a soft bed. When they find rolling plains, the wind can rest at last. Goodman's telling is overly complicated, exaggerating Peter's perfectly reasonable curiosity with adult-laden cuteness: "I'm up here," said Peter. "And I'd like to ask you a very important question. Please, would you wait just a moment?" Root chooses the palette of a clear autumn day; with navy blues and rusty tones she deflects attention away from the flawed text and instills Peter's tale with some enchantment. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.