Why Do I Have to Make My Bed?

K-Gr 3—Having finished his chores and cleaned up his toys, a child asks his mother why he has to make his bed, since it will only get messed up again. She responds by saying how the question reminds her of a story about his grandmother, who had asked the same thing. And her mother answered in a similar fashion to her child, and so on through the generations and centuries until the mother of a cave boy in 40,000 BC answers with, "Because I said so." The book goes back through time, with the children making their beds in the manner of the times. Each spread, rendered in watercolor and Adobe Photoshop, features a clearly labeled date. The locations and times change from America present and past to the Middle Ages, the age of the Vikings, the Roman Empire, ancient Egypt, and finally prehistoric times. An author's note gives a brief summary of the chores and playthings children were likely to have experienced during the period mentioned in the story. An entertaining, lighthearted read.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT