Pair this grand read-aloud with Na’s Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit (2010) for preschool natural-history awareness.
Bear discovers there's no place like home.
Tired of waking up every morning “in the same green forest under the same blue sky,” Bear decides to try out some other animal homes. Bird's nest is too high. It’s stuffy underground with Mole, too steep on Goat’s cliff, and too deep with Octopus in the ocean. It’s too cold where Polar Bear and the puffins live and too hot in Camel’s desert; it’s too rainy with Orangutan and too muddy with the hippos. Home is satisfying after all. This familiar trajectory and story pattern has been set in a stylized natural world, recognizable and yet unusual, starting with the blue-toned forest that spreads across the endpapers. Na has combined handmade painterly textures with digitally generated layers into imaginatively colored digital images that show well and suggest the various animals’ distinctive habitats, each on a double-page spread. Bear is appealingly portrayed, with highly expressive body language. Some of his friends are, amusingly, quite surprised by his visit. The text is spare, usually only a sentence on each spread, but carefully and engagingly written. Listeners can’t help but sympathize with Bear in his frustration and rejoice when he finds the place that’s “just where he wanted to be.”
Pair this grand read-aloud with Na’s Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit (2010) for preschool natural-history awareness. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75375-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
To quote one particularly joyous double-page spread, “Oh, what a ride!”
A succession of forest creatures—and even the river itself—learn from one another and validate their relationships with both one another and the wider world.
The simplicity of the text and the stylized, comical creatures belie the depth of the message that comes through for even the youngest of readers: We are all in this together, and our differences strengthen our unity. The river “didn’t know it was a river…until” Bear accidentally begins riding down it on a piece of broken tree trunk. Bear in turn doesn’t realize he is on an adventure until Froggy lands on his back; lonely Froggy doesn’t know how many friends she has until the wary Turtles show up on the ever-more-swiftly-moving log; the Turtles learn how to enjoy the ride when Beaver climbs aboard; and so on through several more characters until they are all at the brink of a waterfall. Outstanding art perfectly complements the text, showing the animals’ differing personalities while also using color, space, and patterns to create appealing scenery. There are several hilarious double-page spreads, including one from the animals’ collective perspective, showing solely the various feet on the tree-trunk–cum-raft at the waterfall’s edge, and one requiring a 90-degree turn, showing the plummeting animals as they reach for one another—some looking worried and others, like Duck and Beaver, obviously enjoying the sudden drop.
To quote one particularly joyous double-page spread, “Oh, what a ride!” (author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-46447-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
The message is universal, and the words can’t be said enough. The bears are certainly stand-ins for any adoring mother-child...
Though expressed by a mother polar bear in the snowy Arctic, this is a very warm message of love to a small child.
In quiet, lilting verse, the bear mother assures her little one that she will always be there, no matter what the circumstances—sharing in her tot’s happiness, consoling her in sad and scary times, finding her when she’s lost, and always encouraging her hopes and dreams. The best part, of course, is mom’s heartfelt promise that she will love her child forever. The simple digital illustrations are sweet and comforting, usually rendered in stark white and black against muted background hues; most feature close-ups of mother and child embracing or enjoying activities in each other’s company. Some scenes are particularly striking—one spread depicts a bold, blue night sky with a bright full moon casting the duo’s reflections on still water; another spread shows the bears marveling at the vivid colors of the aurora borealis—but the general quietness of the artwork reflects the gentleness of a mother’s calm, heartfelt assurances.
The message is universal, and the words can’t be said enough. The bears are certainly stand-ins for any adoring mother-child pair. (Final, foil-embellished art not seen.) (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7132-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
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