THE CHRISTMAS BEARS

A large family of bears prepares for Christmas together in this simple, rhyming story for younger children. In this diverse family, each bear is a different species, but Pa is a special bear with a red hat and a team of reindeer. This Santa Bear lives at the North Pole with his wife and seven cubs, who are joined for the holiday by their cousins-in-name, a panda and a koala bear. The story is told with one rhyming couplet per spread, alternating with a wordless spread showing the bears engaging in holiday preparations. Conover’s appealing illustrations are filled with intricate details in the bears’ clothing and in their cozy home. The bears bake cookies, make cards, try out the toys in the workshop and prepare a Christmas Eve feast together before Pa leaves to make his deliveries with his sleigh and reindeer. The final spread shows the cubs playing with their own toys on Christmas morning with both their parents, and the endpapers show all the different kinds of bears in the story along with a world map color-coded to show their geographic origins. (Picture book. 3-6)