I took a quick break from reading Maugham’s short stories (since there are about 90 of them!) to read this quick collection. It only consists of three stories, one of which I read last year. It’s a cute collection, with stories that I think would appeal to children very well.

The first, “The Bed Book,” is one I read last year. It’s a poem about all different sorts of beds, from snack beds to elephant beds (my personal favorite). I read it to my kids last year, too, and they all giggled a lot.

The second, “The It-Doesn’t-Matter Suit,” was my least favorite, but still good. It’s about a family who has seven boys. The youngest, Max, really wants a suit of his own, but as the youngest he’s not likely to get one. A suit arrives one day that his father tries on and decides is too strange for him, and the suit gets passed down one by one through the kids until Max has it.

The third, and probably my favorite, is called “Mrs. Cherry’s Kitchen.” Two pixies who live in the salt and pepper shakers in Mrs. Cherry’s kitchen start hearing complaints from the kitchen appliances. They all want to try each other’s jobs. It’s the pixies’ job to keep all the kitchen equipment happy, as well as taking care of the kitchen in general, so they arrange for all the appliances to swap jobs. As you can imagine, chaos ensues.

All three stories in my edition have lovely illustrations by David Roberts, which added to the young feel of the stories.