In this third story about Bear and his friends, Bear struggles to stay awake during the group’s holiday preparations. On Christmas Eve, all the other animals fall asleep, but Bear stays up all night making presents for the others. He’s so busy with his work that he misses the appearance of Santa, who pauses at the cave door to fill all their stockings. On Christmas morning, the smaller animals enjoy their own gifts and then surprise Bear with a comfy quilt for his long-awaited winter slumber. The rollicking rhyming text is punctuated with the regular refrain of “but the bear stays up,” which will surely be chanted gleefully by children listening to this story. The illustrations do a fine job with animal expressions and with difficult situations such as a mole popping corn and a Raven stirring up some fruitcake. The oversized format includes many double-page spreads with the bumbling, big-hearted bear in action and then finally settling down for a long winter’s nap, after which Bear had better be back. (Picture book. 3-7)
