A super cute bedtime store about dreams and not be afraid. A very clever use of yarn to tie the story together. I think many kids and parents will enjoy this book and its message. Well written.

I read this to my 3 year old daughter and wife at bedtime and they both agreed that it is a brilliant book and would definitely have bought it. It is now added to our bedirectory time routine

What a gorgeous book of connection with our dreams, and our knitting together of reality. I love how this book knit together a story of dreams and overcoming unknowns.

Frankie is a sweet little Bear who holds his mother's yarn ball to feel connected to her as she knits in the living room. He imagines beautiful scenes with the vivid colors of the yarn. I was pleased that the author chose to use colors that are not basic like red, blue, green. The author used vibrant, detailed colors like "morning-sky blue."

What a treat for young readers, parents, and grandparents. I highly recommend this book and cannot wait for its publication.

Really sweet and simple book for reading to your little ones last thing at night. A young bear needs to hold the ball of yarn his mother is knitting with each night in order to get to sleep; every colour sends him off thinking of different things. The idea of a young child losing their comfort blanket has never been done quite like this before. The colours are lovely, the text simple, and it's all really rather charming.

A Bedtime Yarn
April 20, 2017


Like a well-worn, snuggly blanket, this sweet bedtime story about a little bear who's afraid of the dark and his mother's creative solution will warm and comfort readers big and small.

Frankie is a little bear who has a hard time falling asleep. The dark is scary, and he hates to be alone. So his mother gives him a ball of yarn to hold when he goes to bed, and she keeps the other end in the next room, working it into a surprise for Frankie.

Every few nights the yarn color changes, and Frankie dreams in all the colors that he and his mother pick out. One night he's swimming in turquoise water, another night he's in a cool gray fog. He plays with a marmalade kitten and eats delicious chocolate cake. Eventually Frankie and his mother create something special--and Frankie learns that he's always connected to those he loves, even when he's alone in the dark.

A beautiful story of love and crafting, A Bedtime Yarn will appeal to knitters, sleepy little bears and any parents dealing with their child's fear of the dark.
I read this to my girls at bedtime and they loved it saying it would give them good dreams; although the both want a ball of yarn to sleep with now.

It’s a rewarding story that will help kids who feel vulnerable about trying to fall asleep in the dark. The themes of bravery and facing their fears are really good lessons to instill early on as well as finding ways to cope. The story helped my girls open up and talk to me about what scares them.

We all loved the adorable illustrations which helped make the story even better.

I would recommend this to other caregivers to hopefully have a similar enjoyable experience with their kids that I had with mine.

Frankie is a little bear who is afraid to fall asleep, he thinks he will float away in his dreams. His mother comes up with a solution, she gives him a ball of yarn to hold onto when he sleeps. Mother holds the other end and knits with it. This yarn not only holds Frankie to his bed, but it keeps him connected to his mother that he loves. It also gives his dreams colour. Every couple of nights, he gets a new ball of yarn to hold and whatever colour he is holding is what he dreams about. It could be a blue body of water or an orange and black striped tiger, but he always wakes up in his bed. When he gets older he asks his mother what they have made with the yarn. She responds that he will know when he no longer needs to hold onto the yarn to sleep. This is a beautiful bedtime book. The illustrations are colourful, detailed and gorgeous to look at. This is a wonderful book to share with little ones that may be afraid to go to sleep. They can hold a favourite toy or stuffy or be covered with a favourite blanket, but they need to know that they will always be connected to those they love. A must for any family library.

Super cute and sweet story. Great for bedtime. Frankie is a little bear. He is afraid of going to sleep. So Mother bear gives him a ball of different colored yarn each night to hold while going to sleep. Each color of yarn takes Frankie on a new adventure in his dreams. While Frankie is going to sleep Mother knits a special surprise. She tells Frankie that she will not show him what she is knitting until he is no longer afraid to go to sleep without the yarn ball. one day Frankie decides he really wants to see what Mother is knitting and tells her he no longer needs the yarn ball. That night Mother puts him to bed with an imaginary ball of yarn. While Frankie is sleeping mother covers him with the blanket she has knitted. Frankie is surprised when he wakes up and never worries about the dreams taking him away again.

This is a wonderful story about a bear and his many balls of yarn. He uses his yarn as a snuggle in bed. The color helps him have amazing dreams and know that he is always anchored, and never able to float away. This was a masterfully told story, that were kicked up further by the amazing and colorful illustrations.

Added Goodreads
Added Litsy

Incomplete review. I got the ARC relatively early on, and in the span of now and its archiving date, perhaps there'd be updated versions, so my opinion may change. The following is more about the layout and design rather than the story or the illustration (I do think the illustration is lovely, btw.)

I'm actually very surprised to see the comment on the last page (p.32) saying "adjust the yarn as marked to give more space around text." I have not seen any marks, so I do not no if the version I am seeing is after the adjustment or before, and incase it is in fact before, I'd just like to say I personally find the margin okay, not too crowded at all.

If there's a page that made me feel that the text was a bit "tight," it be p.28. I felt like the text was only narrowly fitted into the restricted text frame to be placed in the dark colors. While some of the text were flush left in this book, I feel like in this case, it made the block of text stood out and look inorganic. While I do not know if the text would fit, I kind of think it'll be more pleasing to the eye, should the text on this page follows the treatment when it comes to the text on pages describing each different colored yarn, as in flowing a bit freely instead of being so rigid.

Above being said, while p.28 was the one that made me feel "slightly forced," it's not that I don't have problems with the text on pages about the yarns. I thought some of the sentences were broken at weird parts, making reading them slightly distracting, such as p.8 "Frankie's favorite yarn was / a smooth, / morning-sky blue. / But every color had a story." I have no idea why it was necessary to break the above into 4 lines! "Frankie's favorite yarn was / a smooth, morning-sky blue. / But every color had a story." would have worked, and it would also save the words "had a story." from being positioned in a different shade. If you want to emphasize the color (that's the only explanation I can come up with,) make the specific text bold or something, because my eyes still didn't pick out the colors themselves as the focus, only picking out that the text arrangement was odd.

Or like p.10 when there's obviously enough space, yet the text was placed where "striped" and the last two dots from the next sentence had to be on top of a dark shade leaf. Moving up the entire text by just one line would have solved this problem.

This is actually the first time the handling of the typography in a picture book distracted me so much. I do like the story and love the art work, but somehow, the overall treatment of the text wasn't bringing out the best potential of this book, in my opinion.

So. Sweet.

Frankie is afraid of falling asleep and dreaming, without a ball of yarn in his paws. His mother knits from the ball while he sleeps, dreaming up vivid dreams inspired by the color of the yarn that night. Although he wants to see what his mum is making, she won't let him see it until he can sleep without the yarn. When Frankie finally feels he's ready to sleep without the yarn, he wakes up to a big knitted surprise--<spoiler>a huge knitted blanket, encompassing all the colors of yarn Frankie has fallen asleep to!</spoiler>

This is a very sweet story for kids who are afraid of the dark, dreams, or generally insecure. It encourages them be brave and overcome their fear while encouraging an open dialogue between kids and parents about insecurities. While it may seem counter-intuitive to replace one comforting device with another, to me, this showed kids that they could still overcome a fear, while still finding comfort and safety in something, even though they now know the fear is nothing to fear any longer.

The artwork is also gorgeous and cute. I loved the rich jewel tones throughout.