WHAT'S UP, BEAR?

A trip to the Big Apple is fraught with anxiety for Sophie’s stuffed bear in this tour-cum–opposite book.

Sophie is thrilled to be visiting New York City with her dad; Bear is not as excited. Left-hand pages present one sentence from Sophie’s perspective, while right-hand pages detail Bear’s experiences. Bolded words in each introduce opposites: up and down for the airplane ride, fast and slow for the taxi trip, tall and short when comparing themselves to Manhattan’s skyscrapers. While not all the sights are specific to New York, readers will recognize LaGuardia Airport, Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, and of course, the subway (the 3 train) in Moore’s brightly colored digital illustrations. (The endpapers provide further facts about each of these places.) When Sophie and her dad head to a toy store, though, the tale takes a darker turn as Bear questions his self-worth and then is lost amid all the other bears at the store: fancy/plain, new/old, big/small, forgot/remember. Happily, he wears an address tag that helps him reunite with Sophie: lost/found. Throughout, readers will be captivated by both Sophie’s and Bear’s facial expressions; Sophie’s exuberance is obvious, while the patched and well-loved Bear looks like he might lose his lunch after riding the subway.

Where will the lovable Bear and his best friend travel next? (Picture book. 2-5)