THE INVISIBLE BEAR

In this French import (translated into English by its author), a bear that feels invisible undergoes a transformation.

Debut author/illustrator Metzger opens the story with exterior and interior settings rendered in pale gray/green watercolor and ink, a choice reinforcing the lonely silence surrounding the large, white bear that feels forgotten, unseen. His presence is distinguished only by the rain cloud perpetually above his head. One morning, a cluster of rosy dragonflies flits into his orbit—followed by a truck packed with the green and pink cargo of Madame Odette. Double-page spreads of the elderly white woman’s home and greenhouse, as well as vignettes of her many activities, show that she “lived in a cheerful world of color and sound.” Initially annoyed, the bear learns to accommodate the changes and ultimately help his new neighbor by transporting his cloud to her wilting garden. Then his new friend is gone: “She loved her dragonflies so much that she flew away with them.” Whether this is meant to be literal or metaphorical is open to interpretation, but the bear finds a potted flower on his doorstep and realizes that he has been seen. While the two characters’ contrasting lives are well delineated, the gray lasts a bit too long, the bear’s predicament is never explained, and the conclusion in which the friend departs will be unsatisfying for many children.

Readers will be forgiven for wondering if a plant can replace companionship.