Our Nest

With soothing language and enchanting illustrations, this gentle picture book leads children from the warm nest of their bed to the ever-expanding embrace of the world around them.

Snuggled in bed,
You’re all safe and warm,
Like a bird in a nest in a tree.

A child tucked in bed, a doe curled in the grass, a boat anchored in the harbor — everything has a nest. Even the ocean needs the earth to be its nest, while beyond, the universe holds the stars. In this tender poem, Reeve Lindbergh and Jill McElmurry use an ever-widening focus to show children the vast world beyond their beds, and all the love and comfort to be found there.

Reeve Lindbergh, the daughter of aviator Charles Lindbergh and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, has written many children’s books, including MY HIPPIE GRANDMOTHER and ON MORNING WINGS, as well as several memoirs for adults. She says of OUR NEST, "As a child, I loved to curl up in bed and feel as if I were inside a little warm nest. I’d think about all the other children who were curled up at the same time, just like me. It gave me a wonderful feeling."

Jill McElmurry is the illustrator of THE KETTLES GET NEW CLOTHES and I’M SMALL AND OTHER VERSES, and is the author-illustrator of MAD ABOUT PLAID. About OUR NEST, she says, "I first read the manuscript a few months after September 11 and felt so comforted by its vision of our world nesting peacefully in the universe, the way a doe nests with her fawn in tall grass. Illustrating the story was a challenge, but I found a new way of working in the process."