The Biggest Bed in the World

A family bed seems like a good idea when Mom and Dad have only one small baby, but as that baby grows, and as more children (including sets of twins and triplets, all with names beginning with ""B"") are added to the brood, bleary-eyed Dad keeps wondering, ""How am I supposed to sleep like this?"" Desperate, he makes the biggest bed in the world--""so big, he had to knock down several walls to make enough room for it."" When that leads to a comic disaster, he bans everybody but Mom from the parental bedroom then realizes that sleeping deux feels ""well, a little empty."" Dad finally dozes off when everybody is back under the same covers. With a succinct text and tightly rendered, pastel-hued pictures, Camp (Hippo's River Caf ) and Langley (The Three Little Kittens in the Enchanted Forest) gently push the chaotic realities of everyday family life to a logical and hilarious conclusion. Their keen sense of hyperbole never spins out of control: even when Dad's enormous bed crashes through the house's walls and goes barreling out to sea, the story still retains a cheeky ring of truth. Ages 3-6. (Feb.)