You know how mother’s day is coming up? The Big Bed is a fun book for a dad to give a mom knowing that it will make her smile. True, it’s a picture book, aimed at the young folk, but really… this is a book to make a mom smile as it pokes fun at dad a bit.
Bunmi Laditon is a Canadian author who writes about the joys of toddlers. In this book she has a little girl talking with a dad about what she considers to be a big problem. Tom Knight does a marvellous job of illustrating this little girls complaint to her daddy.
The complaint is simple “Daddy, we need to talk about the big bed” and from there her reasoning takes place. She talks about the importance of her mommy and her place in the world, and what daddy’s place should be and so forth.
I admittedly wasn’t sure what to make of this book, it was cute and made me chuckle a bit, but I honestly couldn’t say that I would want to sit down and read it with a young child. I showed it to a seasoned mother friend that I know and asked her opinion. She chuckled and said “this is a book a dad would give to mom and they would chuckle over it together, but NOT one to give to a child or even read it to them”. Once she said that I agreed. It would make a fun mother’s day gift, but not as a book to read with a youngster. Might give them the wrong ideas about their place in the family and how they should be treating their dad. 
Ms. Laditon does an excellent job of capturing a young child’s logic as well as filling in some of her own ideas to round out the story. It’s a fun little book.I love the art work by Tom Knight, the full colour images, the bright colours, the capturing of expressions, it was priceless. I loved how the young lady saw the great things that her daddy did.
I suppose I just wanted it to be more. I loved how her momma laughed at her daughter’s final conclusion and could easily see many a parent doing that, I just wanted momma to correct her little girl and say NO, we don’t do things like that to daddy. That part didn’t happen, ergo, it’s a great book to give to mommy so that Dad and Mom can laugh together. 
The Big Bed
Bunmi Laditon author
Tom Knight Illustrator
farrar, straus, Giroux
ages 4-6 years, 18 pages, softcover
Reviewed for Raincoast books.
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