Candlewick Press | 978-1536212396

I have hundreds and hundreds of picture books. I place them all around the house. In bookcases and on shelves, but also displayed on the piano, the media center, an entry table by the front door, and on all the flat surfaces in nearly every room of the house. Truly, I do not need more books. And yet… today when I went to the bookstore and opened A BED OF STARS by Jessica Love, I knew right away I would buy the book and bring it home. I love gorgeous writing, and the way a picture book can build page on page, transporting me as I read, causing both my heart and the world to become a quiet magical space of the book and me.

This is what I felt as I read A BED OF STARS. I’d gone to the bookstore to bring home a different book, but before I could find it, my eye landed on Jessica Love’s newest. I’d read the (cover reveal) article in Publisher’s Weekly, nearly a year ago, and I’d watched the author discussing the book on YouTube a few weeks before its publication. I knew what it was about. And yet it became so much more as I turned the pages…

CLICK TO ENLARGE © words and illustrations by Jessica Love

It’s about together time and the special relationship of a father and son. It’s also about the desert, an overnight camping grip, and noticing. Small things, like a swallow and a crow, manzanita and sage, and the tiny tracks of beetles in the sand.

CLICK TO ENLARGE © words and illustrations by Jessica Love

And big things, too. A vast expanse of stars. A universe that goes “on and on forever.” Parents who understand exactly what their child needs.

A beautiful book in both words and illustrations. Not to be missed.

⭐⭐⭐

Read this article with the author in Publisher’s Weekly about the process of creating the book.

Enjoy this video introduction to A BED of STARS: