WHAT YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT BEDS, BEDROOMS, & PAJAMAS

Lauber follows up What You Never Knew About Tubs, Toilets, & Showers (2001) with another quick tour through domestic history, taking readers from prehistoric times to campouts and sleepovers, with pauses for glimpses at “Great Moments in Nightclothes” and a recapitulative “Great Moments in Bed History.” Separating the easily digestible passages of text, Manders’s comical, cartoon-style scenes feature figures in historical dress and brief comments in dialogue balloons. Aside from a single reference to “other parts of the world” and a closing vignette of a sleeper on a futon, this presents an entirely Eurocentric picture, and Lauber’s dismissal of the Middle Ages as only a “bridge” between the ancient and modern worlds is a minority view nowadays. But, these glimpses of what people wore, what they slept on and what shared their beds will please casual browsers. Young readers in search of more specific facts will do better with Ruth Freeman Swain’s Bedtime! (1999), illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith. (source list) (Nonfiction. 8-10)