No More Room in the Bed

By Deborah Abela & Marina Verola

Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

Deborah Abela has won many awards for her work including the KOALA, YABBA, Aurealis and Speech Pathology Awards and the Maurice Saxby Award for service to children’s literature. Marina Verola is the illustrator of the My Epic Dad! series and Meoster Chef. Here they have collaborated on a rollicking variation on the ‘how many can you fit in one bed’ theme with a charming twist at the end.

‘It started with a little rain but soon became a storm’ is the beginning to a wonderful lineup of people, creatures, even aliens asking to share Dad’s bed. Deborah gets very creative in describing the storm, it boomed and crashed’ it stomped and thumped and roared, the wind growled, lightning hissed, shadows loomed, with all the action words highlighted in a different font.

Children will enjoy the repetition as the list of bedmates gets longer and longer. Nothing and no-one is too crazy as ballerinas, rabbits, piranhas, a moose, even a whale ask for shelter.  Marina’s artwork is energetic and  colourful, humorous, expressive and inventive too as she manages to get everyone into the bed..

A delightful story to read aloud at bedtime but really lots of fun any time.

Larrikin House 2025